CONVENT OF SAINT ANNE
Viana do Castelo
The construction of old Saint Anne convent, for Benedictines nuns, was ordered by the local nobility on the back of the Town Hall, to lodge the unmarried daughters of the city’s nobility.
The original convent, with gothic origins, is a work of Pedro Galego, an inhabitant of Caminha, where he led the second phase of work in the First Church, in the early 16th century.
It suffered some enlargements in the early 18th century, but the principal modifications had been made between 1897 and 1905. The result is a fine architectonic unit which kept the frontispiece of the church of the 18th century in a “baroque joanine” style and a sumptuous spire in the tower.