The Estate

The Estate Quinta de Amares

T he Monastery of Santo André de Rendufe was one of the most important national Benedictine communities, steadily developing up to the fifteenth century. When King D. John I became to the throne, an issue arising between the abbot Afonso Martins and the archbishop of Braga led the latter obtaining authorisation from the Pope to close the monastery.

The major works seen in the Monastery today date from the eighteenth century when the new church was built. The interior was only finished in 1755, the works to the church taking place at the same time as the associated monastic buildings. The Chapel of the Holy Sacrament dates from 1780 and rococo gilt work decorates the church, which is one of the most important in the north of the country.

After 1834 that church became the parish church, and the surrounding premises were sold, later to be lost in a fire that destroyed most of the old Monastery. The emergency intervention programme and the recovery plan, with the restoration and improvement works currently being handled by IPPAR, will preserve what still remains without losing sight of the possibility of intervening throughout the whole monastery in the near future.