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Life behind the walls of the Convent of the 'Bernardas'
Convento das Bernardas is located near the new bridge over the Gilão river, next to the salines of Tavira, and was commissioned in 1509 by King D. Manuel I as a "thanksgiving" gift to the city of Arzila for the success that it had in " overseas Algarve, in Africa", in a Moorish siege. The building was handed to D. Fernando Coutinho who, in 1530, finished it and handed it over to the nuns of Cister. In the next three centuries, it remained the only female convent of that order, in the Algarve region.
The Nuns of Bernardas, as they were known in Tavira over the centuries, have been the protagonists of some scandals:
In 1537, the abbess of the convent wrote a letter to King D. João III ( John III) to say that she and all the people in the Convent would be pleased to receive the daughter of Nuno Gato, but since the girl had no assets of her own and the convent struggled to sustain itself, they had decided to refused.
Thus, the nuns did not accept the girl because she was poor, although the king had requested her admission;
In 1543, Gonçalo Bandeira asked King D. João III, by letter, if he could send his daughter to one of his relatives, because the nuns "annoyed the girl", encouraging her to marry the son of Diogo Simões, marriaged which had not been authorized by the king , and so the girl had decided to become a nun;
In 1547, the Judge of Tavira( 'Corregedor' de Tavira) wrote a letter to the king, informing him of the departure of the nuns from the Convent, an event that was widely discussed in the city. Throughout the letter, there is a noticeable intent of the judge to emphasize their departure as an honest act. The nuns had spent a whole day at the male monastery of St Francisco, allegedly to fulfill a promise. According to him, they went to Mass at the Monastery and sat in the choir, had dinner with their confessor and other priests and spent the afternoon singing and playing music . At night, they went back to their Convent, all with convincing honesty;
In 1548, Friar Estevão, of the Order of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, confessor of the nuns, was killed by Francisco Viegas when he was closing the doors of the convent, something he did on a daily basis. Friar Estevão, who was suspicious of some irregularities, had hid himself when Francisco Viegas suddenly appeared and killed him. Judge Francisco Pais complains to the King that " [...] rarely do the noblemen obey justice, so some people of this city, and who live in it, are asking for the King's justice."
Indeed, the boldness of the Nuns of the 'Bernardas' throughout the sixteenth century was obvious.
Carta do Juiz Francisco Pais / Letter by the Judge Francisco Pais Judgerancisco