Santa Bárbara Nucleus

This center resulted from the adaptation of an old convent that lasted until our days, from the three existing ones in the city of Ponta Delgada. The Recolhimento de Santa Bárbara dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, and was built by Roque Teixeira Fonseca and his wife Maria Esteves, who also built a chapel in honor of Santa Bárbara. From 1662 on, their daughters started living in this house, as if they were recollected nuns, in white robes and under the Third Order of Saint Augustine. Their fame of honesty and their virtues soon went beyond the enclosure, "spreading throughout the city and attracting to that residence a few dozen maidens". After his wife's death, Roque Teixeira Fonseca was ordained priest and constituted as heiress his sister, Maria de Santo António, who remained as regent of the Recolhimento and, in a will of 1674, bound the entire property for "there to live and collect maidens with her regent."

With the passing of this building to the Museu Carlos Machado, the process of adaptation to new designs began. Currently, the old Santa Bárbara Shelter, rehabilitated by the Azores Government, assumes museum functions, presenting itself as a place of memory, inhabited by culture.

• OPEN 6 DAYS A WEEK
• Monday - Closed
• Tue. to Sun. - 10:00 to 17:30