Museu de Aveiro / Santa Joana

The Aveiro Museum (also known as the Santa Joana Museum) is housed in the former Convent of Jesus, founded in 1464 by Dom Brites Leitoa. During the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, it underwent numerous interventions, from the construction of the cloister and of the tomb of Santa Joana, as well as the gilded carvings and historic tiles of the chancel and church body. By virtue of the Decree dated 1834 (extinction of the religious Orders) the convent is extinguished, and it starts to function as a college until 1910. In 1911 it is becames a Museum. It undergoes constant adaptation works, over the last century, with a view to installing the collections. Some convent spaces are still preserved, such as the Church, the cloister and adjacent chapels and the two choirs (upper and lower). The museum's collection consists mainly of works of sacred art from convents that were extinct in 1834, however, it has small nuclei of ethnology, archeology, etc. The building is classified as a National Monument.