Museu Rainha Dona Leonor
Largo da Conceição
About
The Queen Leonor Museum (founded in 1927-28) occupies three buildings on a broad plaza in the center of Beja: the Convento da Conceição and the churches of Santo Amaro and São Sebastião. The main building was a convent founded in 1459 by the parents of the Portuguese king Manuel I. Favored by royal protection, it became one of the richest and most important convents of that time. The Convento da Conceição is famous throughout the world because of a single nun, Mariana Alcoforado. She is said to have written the Lettres Portugaises, love letters to the French chevalier de Chamilly, at the convent in the 17th century. Some of the building's most important features are the surviving pieces of the ancient convent. They are the church, with its baroque decoration, and the cloister and chapter house, which present one of the area's most impressive collections of 15th- to 18th-century Spanish and Portuguese tiles. Also on display are statuary and silverwork belonging to the convent and a good collection of Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch paintings from the 15th to 18th centuries. The Escudela de Pero de Faria, a piece of 1541 Chinese porcelain, is especially unique. The first-floor permanent archaeological exhibition features artifacts from the Beja region. The Santo Amaro church is one of the oldest churches of Beja and rests on what could be an early Christian foundation. It houses the most important Visigothic collection (from Beja and its surroundings) in Portugal. The Church of São Sebastião is a small temple of no great architectural interest. It houses part of the museum's collection of architectural goods from Roman to modern times. It's not open to the public; access is by special request.
