Having been founded in 1162 by the Portuguese King D. Afonso Henriques the Monastery of Santa Maria de Seiça (a small burough pertaining to Figueira da Foz) is believed to have florished under the Benedictine Order.
In 1555 the Monastery's artefacts were handed to the Order of Christ as its premises were closed down by King D. João III until 1560, when under the rule of King D. Sebastião they were handed over to the Cister order, who in no time turned the former Monastery into a Centre of Philosophical Studies.
With the extinction of the religious orders in 1834 the Monastery is saidd to have gone through a rather slow yet visible process of degradation and ruin until it was sold to a prominent and rich man who transformed it into a rice shelling mill that went through to 1975.
Officially considered a monument of interest (I wonder what it would be like if it werent't ...) its remains stand in the middle of nowhere in a complete state of abandonment, as if to remind Portuguese people of the little importance we pay to the historic past of our country ...
Officially considered a monument of interest (I wonder what it would be like if it werent't ...) its remains stand in the middle of nowhere in a complete state of abandonment, as if to remind Portuguese people of the little importance we pay to the historic past of our country ...
No comments:
Post a Comment