Visit the Convent of St. Anthony of Alva - Vila Cova de Alva

The Convent of St. Anthony of Alva, located in the Town of Vila Cova de Alva, is now private property.

This monastery has its highest elevation in the cloister of the eighteenth century, divided into two distinct parts: the Church, which has in its interior altarpieces national style, an organ with Rococo elements, among other points of interest, and the convent building, much changed, but where one can still observe the remains of the Chapter Room, the Dining Hall, the dormitory and the Cloister of five bays and small dimensions, whose ground floor is still intact. This consists of the Tuscan order columns that are based on a wall.

The first stone of the convent was launched on September 21, 1713. The arrival of the religious case, however, a year earlier, on March 19, 1712, in order to construct the building. This will have been completed on 24 February 1723, when it is translated from the Blessed Sacrament, accompanied by the religious, to the convent. The reason will be built this monastery in Vila Cova de Alva is still unexplained, although they suggest some conditions that have contributed to this building: the proximity of two other religious communities in Folques (with the Crosier Monastery) andLittle town of Beira (with the Franciscan Convent), the existence of a religious life more or less intense, the weather and water, among others.