three kilometres from figueira, eight centuries of cister
Head out of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo on the road to Almofala. Three kilometres, one valley, and you're at the door of one of the best-preserved Cistercian churches still standing in Portugal. Around it, chestnut groves and silence.
The Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Aguiar began in the 12th century. Around 1170 the local community adopted the Cistercian rule, still in the Riba-Côa territories that were disputed between the Portuguese and the Leonese. It was only with the Treaty of Alcanices, in 1297, that the border settled where it is today, and the monastery passed definitively to the Portuguese side. It was classified as a National Monument in 1932, and the restoration work that began in 1937 is part of what you see today.
The church holds the typical Cistercian austerity: Latin cross plan, three naves, ribbed ogival vaulting, unadorned facade, round arch doorway with no decoration. Of the original cloister only the base of the wall and the Chapter House survived. The rest of the convent was sold at public auction in 1937 and part of it now operates as a private guesthouse, which means there are areas of the complex you can't visit even if you go in.
Head up to Castelo Rodrigo afterwards, or come from there before late afternoon. The castle on the hill, the monastery in the valley, the light dropping over the chestnut groves as if the century had never changed.
worth knowing
- visits are by appointment for most of the year; contact the Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo tourism office
- the church is standing, the convent isn't complete: part is in private hands and operates as a guesthouse
- access to the interior is by steps, with no ramped alternative
- bats live in the building, and the site protects them
- on 15 August, the feast of Nossa Senhora da Guia, patron of the municipality, the place fills up
