Located on the banks of the river Mondego, the "Mosteiro de Santa Cruz" is one of the oldest and most important monuments of Coimbra, founded in 1131 by the Canons Regulars of St. Augustine. D. Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, attended religious services here on his return from his Christian Reconquest battles. Perhaps for this reason he chose him for his eternal rest, like his son D. Sancho I.
Santa Cruz was the cradle of the first medieval studies in Portugal, which with their educational action would strengthen the emerging real power. It was among its walls that one of the most universal figures of Western culture of the 12th and 13th centuries, St. Anthony, a doctor of the Church, deepened his theological studies and his vast knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which is evident in his sermons.
The church, cloister and chapels were rebuilt in the 16th century to plans by Diogo de Boitaca, establishing itself as one of the most beautiful works of Portuguese Renaissance art.
Despite the damage caused by man and time, magnificent details are still preserved today: the facade, the pulpit and the royal tombs, the cloister of silence, the bas-reliefs of the cloister and the paintings in the sacristy.
