Four years from now, the Alcobacences – people for Alcobaça – will wake up with a different view of their local monument. A part of the Monastery of Alcobaça, which started being built in 1178, will be transformed into a luxury hotel.

The Rachadouro cloister, closed off for 15 years, will be the new project of the well-known Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto Moura, and it is scheduled to open in 2019 as a hotel.

The Monastery of Alcobaça was one of the first Cistercian foundations in Portugal. It became the main center of this religious order, as a result of a continuous policy of royal protection begun by King D. Afonso Henriques. The Monastery’s soaring medieval structures are unique in the world. Besides, its later additions, dating from the 16th through to the 18th centuries, bear an important testimony to the evolution of Portuguese architecture.

For more information:

http://www.patrimoniocultural.pt/en/museus-e-monumentos/dgpc/m/mosteiro-de-alcobaca/