Alpendurada Monastery

The Benedictine Alpendurada Monastery, Whose protector saint is Joan the Baptist, was founded before the Portuguese nationality, because the 1st. written document dates from 1096.
It was first recongnised in 1123 by the mother of our first king. Then, the first king of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, confirmed it in 1132.
But later on, in 1599, all its furniture and and valuables old things were removed into another convent, in Oporto and the monastery was abandoned for several years. However, the parish priest Frei Jerónimo Freire recovered the monastery in 1611. At that time it was all rebuilt and a lot of changes were made in the old structure that became mostly baroque styled.
In 1834, the monks were forced to abandon the monastery due to the religious orders extinction and since then this monastery was abandoned.
At the Moment the monastery is private property, it belongs to Mr. Taveira da Mota who is tranforming it into a very nice hotel.