Metadata: Monastery of São Domingos
Collection
- Country:
- Portugal
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arquivo Distrital do Porto
- Postal address:
- Rua das Taipas 90, 4050-598 Porto
- Phone number:
- 00351 220046200
- Web address:
- http://www.adporto.dglab.gov.pt/
- Email:
- info@adporto.dglab.gov.pt
- Reference number:
- PT/ADPRT/MON/CVSDPRT
- Title:
- Monastery of São Domingos
- Title (official language):
- Convento de São Domingos
- Creator/accumulator:
- Convento de São Domingos
- Date(s):
- 1220/1850
- Language:
- Latin
- Extent:
- 4 linear metres (54 books)
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The Convento de São Domingos fonds comprises documentation of several kinds produced or related to the monastery. It includes property and income records, inventories and documents on the institution of chapels. The fonds also contains a collection of Medieval parchments. One of these documents records the "emprazamento" (emphyteusis contract) of a house in the judiaria (Jewish quarter) of Olival, in Porto, made by the monastery to Isaac Bicon on May 24, 1407 (PT/ADPRT/MON/CVSDPRT/001/0037).
- Archival history:
- After the extinction in the 1830s, the Convento de São Domingos' registry was transferred to the national treasury. In July of 1934, the fonds, like other male monasteries' registries, was relocated from the Direcção de Finanças do Porto (Porto Financial Directorate) to the Arquivo Distrital, which had been founded a few years before, on June 27, 1931.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Convento de São Domingos is the oldest monastery in Porto. It was founded in 1238, after D. Pedro Salvadores, the bishop of Porto, donated a church, houses, and lands to the monastery's construction. In 1239, King Sancho II declared himself its founder and patron to mitigate conflicts between the bishop and the cabido (Cathedral Chapter). In 1357, a fire destroyed the monastery. Its reconstruction only began in 1375. In 1676, the Convento de São Domingos also began to host the Third Order of the Holy Trinity. Ten years later, the Trinitarians built a chapter near the Dominicans' church, which began to be used as the main temple after another fire in 1778. During the Liberal Wars, the monastery was again damaged by fire in 1832. Two years later, the dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal led to the nationalisation of the monastery and its estates. The north wing of the Convento became the headquarters of the Caixa Filial do Banco de Portugal (a Bank of Portugal's branch), which acquired the whole building in 1865. Meanwhile, the church had been demolished, and the monastery's backyard had been donated to construct the Mercado de Ferreira Borges (Ferreira Borges Market). After the transfer of the Bank of Portugal's branch to Praça da Liberdade in 1934, the building was occupied by an insurance company, the Companhia de Seguros Douro, the predecessor of the Aliança Seguradora. In 1989, the insurance company left the building. The Convento de São Domingos remained closed until 2001, when the Fundação da Juventude do Porto acquired and restored it.
- Access points: locations:
- Porto
- Access points: persons/families:
- Isaac Bicon
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is organised into seven series: Títulos (Titles); Registos de receita e despesa (Income and expenditure records); Prazos (Emphyteusis contracts); Registos de fazenda (Treasury records); Tombos (Inventories); Roteiros (Catalogues); and Instituições de capelas (Chapel's establishments). It also includes a bundle with miscellaneous documents. Records are arranged chronologically.
- Access, restrictions:
- Access to the documents depends on their conservation condition.
- Finding aids:
- Arquivo Distrital do Porto. 1993. Guia do Arquivo Distrital do Porto: uma experiência de tratamento documental – 1990/92. Porto: Arquivo Distrital do Porto.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://pesquisa.adporto.arquivos.pt/details?id=485543
- Yerusha Network member:
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Western Sephardic Diaspora Roadmap
- Author of the description:
- Carla Vieira, 2021
