Mosteiro de Santo André de Ancede

Monastery of Saint Andrew of Ancede

A monastic community existing in 1141, when king Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, granted it the “carta de couto” [place with privileges], settled on a hillside facing the river Douro. The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine made Ancede an important economic, cultural and spiritual centre. This prosperity allowed the investment in assets, of which the church and the monastic complex are examples. Although the traces of the Church may be summarized in the rosette and Romanesque vestments on the walls of the chevet, the volumetry this suggests that the medieval church would have had considerable dimensions. It was destroyed in the 16th century when the Monastery was transferred to the Dominicans. At that time, an adjacent church would have been built to the parishioners. Both were destroyed in the late 17th century, to give way to the current three-nave temple. In the chancel, the Baroque and Neoclassical elements combine with the Romanesque rosette. The walls of the aisles comprise paintings from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the pulpit and the choir and, in the sacristy, the mobile and the set of 18th century reliquaries.