Monuments

The Igreja da Madre de Deus is an integral part of the former convent with the same name, which today houses the National Tile Museum.

The convent was founded by the queen Dona Leonor, the sister of Dom Manuel I and the wife of Dom João II. The church follows the 16th-century Mannerist style, although its decoration, consisting of a harmonious combination of carved and gilded wood, azulejos and paintings, is clearly baroque.

The church’s decorative tiles were made in Holland and placed on the walls in 1698. On the left is a panel depicting “Jehovah calling Moses”, by Willem Van der Koet, while on the right is a panel by Jan Van Oort, with a rustic and courtly scene, notable for the great rigour of its drawing. At the bottom is a panel of azulejos with putti and satyrs, produced by Portuguese tile makers.
In the Chapter House, various patterned compositions can be seen, formed from green chequered and Cuenca azulejos, as well as an important altarpiece of carved and gilded wood.

In the ante-choir, attention is drawn to the panels of the 18th-century Capela de Santo António, and the convent’s former crib designed by António Ferreira. In the upper choir, where the nuns sat to attend mass in their own discreet fashion, the baroque decoration is quite remarkable, with attention being drawn in particular to the choir stalls, the reliquaries, the carved and gilded woodwork, the azulejos lining the walls and the portraits of Dom João III and his wife Catherine of Austria.