Nuns far from home. “Convento das Inglesinhas”, dynamics of a (former) religious foreign house in Lisbon

Abstract

One of most indelible traces in the old Christian Lisbon is the significant number of foreign religious orders that contributed decisively to the “crossroad of peoples and cultures” in the city that is under study in this edition of the Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal. After a careful analysis of the foreign religious orders in the city (who they were, why they came and how the settlement process occurred), this article aims to trace the history and the diverse architectonical and occupational dynamics of Saint Bridget’s convent (also known as “Inglesinhas”) precisely 600 years after the foundation of its motherhouse in England. An example of continuous resistance and reinvention, the convent of Saint Bridget is the foreign convent that presents the most diverse range of uses and architectonical transformations once its original function ceased, becoming a discrete but yet effective center for some of the most relevant political and social events of the contemporary Portugal.