Buçaco Monastery
National Forest of Buçaco, Buçaco 3050 - Portugal
Phone: +351 231 939 133
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The forest was settled as a monastic retreat as early as the 6th century and in 1622 a papal edict banned all women from entering the forest, on pain of excommunication. In 1628 the Discalced Carmelites, an order of barefooted monks, took over and built a monastery and also surrounded the 250 acre forest with a wall. In the late 19th century, after the banning of religious orders, a part of the monastery was replaced by the Buçaco Palace hotel. Only the cloisters, chapel and some cork-lined monks’ cells remain. A plaque records that the Duke of Wellington slept in one of these.
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