The Cistercian convent Convento das Bernardas ("Bernardine monastery") was founded in the city of Tavira in the early 16th century. Over the centuries, it was rebuilt several times, having suffered, among other things, from the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and in 1834, when monastic orders were banned in Portugal, it was sold at auction. The new owner set up a pasta factory there, which operated until the 1960s.
The industrial past had a negative impact on the preservation of the complex, which lost most of its authentic parts (and did not have the status of a monument). Therefore, at the beginning of the 21st century. the investors who bought it were able to turn Convento das Bernardas into a residential complex, since its location next to the Gilau River and salt lakes along the Atlantic coast makes it a pleasant place to live and relax.
Soutou de Moura has retained the laconicism typical of Cistercian buildings during the reconstruction. On the eastern side of the site, he added a line of new townhouses with snow-white facades and a courtyard with a swimming pool, and in the monastery itself he restored its closed composition: initially it consisted of buildings bordering two cloisters and a church.
Now the courtyard (75 x 32 m) is only one, but divided in two: one part of it is occupied by lawns and a reservoir (20 x 20 m), the other is decorated in the spirit of a monastery cloister, with a spring in the center and trees in four corners. The walls of the surrounding buildings are covered with cream plaster, and from the side of the street there is a portal in the Manueline style. A factory chimney reminds of the more recent history of the building.
In the new part of the residential complex there are 21 apartments, and in the old one - 58, their layouts and sizes vary from modest "studios" to apartments with 3 bedrooms. There is also a small museum there.
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