Convent of Santa Clara
The Convento de Santa Clara was built, in the 16th century,by order of Canon Baltazar de Andrade. It was one of the most important and richest convents of Guimarães, beco-
ming famous for the delicious pastries that the nuns confected and sold. One of the best known of those pastries is “toucinho do céu” and the other is “tortas de Guimarães”;
these pastries can still be enjoyed in the more traditional pastry shops of the city. The baroque façade of the building has, on a niche above the portal, the image of the pa-tron saint. On either side, two seraphs hold a tablet with the inscription, 1741, the year in which the existing façade of the building was constructed. The convent was abandoned in
1834, year in which religious orders were dissolved. In 1891, the Seminar of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira installed itself on the premises. Since 1975, the building houses the services
of the City Council of Guimarães