TIBÃES MONASTERY
Braga
Founded in the late 10 th century, the early 11th, it was rebuilt in the last third of the 11th century, becoming, with royal support and the granting of Cartas de Couto, one of the richest and most powerful monasteries in northern Portugal.
With the Reform Movement and the end of the religious crisis between the 14th and 16th centuries, the Monastery of St. Martin of Tibães attends the foundation of the Congregation of St. Benedict of Portugal and Brazil, and becomes the Mother house of all Benedictine monasteries and a diffuser of cultures and aesthetics movements.
The importance of Tibães Monastery is measured also for its role as an authentic "training-school" for a group of architects, masons and carpenters, carvers, gilders, joiners, painters and sculptors, whose active production throughout the northwest peninsula represents some of the best Portuguese art of 17th and 18th centuries.