Madeira - Day 52 cont - Convento de Santa Clara

From the downtown, with its decorative side walks

I walked up the hill towards the fortress that Nicola, Dave and I visited.

I was rushing a little  (not something I like to do while going up a steep hill) because the convent closes at 12 and doesn't open again until 3 and I didn't want to have to kill that much time. It was 11:50 when I rang the bell at the gate in the stone wall that surrounds the convent.

I was admitted by a woman who was sweeping and she took me into an office, took my 2 Euro coin and spoke into a phone, directing me to wait

and then to follow her through the church until we found an earlier tour, in progress, that I joined.

Susan, the guide, spoke very good English and explained that the Franciscan order of Santa Clara was a very strict order and the cloister was one of the few ways that the sisters could get fresh air as they had no contact with the outside world.

Most of them were sent as young girls, usually second daughters, from wealthy families.

The convent received some funding from those wealthy families but also had a garden and the centre of the cloister was full of fruit trees. They also had servants.

Susan pointed out the kestrel up on the bell tower, saying that she thought it had a nest up there.

Susan showed us one of the many chapels on the property. Every inch was decorated, including the wooden doors. Tiled walls and

painted ceiling.

Next we went into the church where the public came for services.

More tiled walls, flagstone floor, wooden pews,

painted ceiling

and a 17th century organ that Susan opened up and foot pumped while one of our tour group played. She says she often has someone on the group who is a church organist.

Two rooms at the back of the church were for the members of the order. The nuns downstairs took communion through the hole in the wooden grill. The novices upstairs were allowed to sing. It was a silent order with their time spent in meditation and prayer. The rest of the group left at this point and Susan showed me what I had missed from the beginning of the tour.

The seats where the nuns sat while listening to the church service and where they conducted their daily prayers.

The one with the crown was for the Mother Superior.

Everywhere there was tile work, paintings and decoration. Susan explained that a lot was commissioned and paid for by the wealthy patrons. This was a time when sugar and wine were creating a lot of wealth on Madeira.

As it was just me, she took me upstairs to where the novices would listen to the service and showed me the green Moorish tiles on the floor. So old that they were still importing them from Morocco and had not yet established their own blue, white and yellow styles.

She also pointed out the carved beams on the ceiling, in the same designs as those found in the Cathedral.

Stepping out on to the veranda she unlocked a cabinet and opened its doors. She told me that some of the decorations in the convent were done by the nuns themselves. We looked closely at this one and she pointed out the rather feminine form of Jesus (his waist, his pose etc) as the nuns would never have seen a mans body.

The convent is still owned by the Franciscan Order but the Santa Clara section has moved to another convent in Funchal and one in Camara dos Lobos. The order here now is permitted to interact with the community and can be teachers and nurses. There is a school in one section of the convent now.
As Susan escorted me out a man came in to tune the organ before the organist came to practice, they both said I could sit and listen and make my own way out.

I walked across the street to a snack bar populated entirely by locals having their lunch.

I ordered Sopa Verde. This is a Portuguese specialty, a potato and kale soup with a bit of spicy sausage thrown in to give it a kick. It was creamy and delicious. That and a glass of wine cost me 3.50 Euro (about $5).

The view out the door, from my seat, was the convent wall and the bell tower.

According to my guidebook the convent was established in 1476. The nuns moved in in 1497. They fled from pirates in1566 (to the Nuns Valley) and the school was established in 1927.