Pousada History:
Around 1514, the Fourth Duke of Bragança, Dom Jaime, decided to found a religious house close to his palace in Vila Viçosa. It would serve dual purpose of Pantheon for the ladies of his House, and would take in the daughters from his second marriage, who could not find noble husbands.
Nobody knows the exact date of the foundations, although documentary evidence suggests that they date back to 1514. At that time, the Duke of Bragança was undertaking a great number of works in the town, especially the new castle and the city walls.
Despite its local character, thins convent, designed in the early fifteen hundreds, revealed the new aesthetic tastes of the Renaissance - the cultural movement which began in Italy in the late fourteenth century - brought to Portugal by João de Ruão and Nicolau Chanterenne. This influence can be seen not only in certain architectural features, in the design of the church doorway, but also in the layout as a whole, in the way the building surrounds the large square, Terreiro do Paço.
One of the most interesting features of the buildings is the marble doorway. Italian influences combined with the tradition and tastes of local architects.