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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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The National Archive of Torre do Tombo
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Language of name of institution
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por
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Contact information: postal address
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Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisbon
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 210037100
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Contact information: web address
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http://antt.dglab.gov.pt/contactos/
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https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/
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Contact information: email
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mail@dglab.gov.pt
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Reference number
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PT/TT/MSJL
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Monastery of Santa Joana de Lisboa
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Title (official language of the state)
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Mosteiro de Santa Joana de Lisboa
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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Mosteiro de Santa Joana de Lisboa
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Date(s)
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1318/1890
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Language(s)
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por
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Extent
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91 books and 37 bundles
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The Mosteiro de Santa Joana fonds comprises documentation related to or produced by this convent in Lisbon, including property records (sales, exchanges, emphyteusis contracts, donations, etc.), papal bulls, wills, licences and sentences, ledgers, expenses and revenue records, documents related to the nuns (admissions, wills, licenses, etc.), among others. The oldest records of this fonds contain relevant data on the population of Lisbon in the 14th and 15th centuries, including social minorities.
For instance, bundle 16 (PT/TT/MSJL/M016) contains an "aforamento" (emphyteusis contract) with references to Jews from Lisbon, namely Guedelha Pelicano and his wife Dona Judia, who were owners of three houses in the Bela Vista neighbourhood. These houses were sold by Judia and Pelicano on July 27, 1487, to a Christian man named Filipe Gonçalves.
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Archival history
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Following a decree from 1862, the records of the Monastery of Santa Joana were transferred to the National Archive of Torre do Tombo. In 1894, the records of the extinguished convents of Santo Alberto, Nossa Senhora da Luz de Arroios, Santa Marta de Jesus and Anunciada e da Rosa, held in the Monastery of Santa Joana, were separately sent to the Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacionais (General Directorate of National Assets).
In 1938, some of records of the Monastery of Santa Joana held in the financial section of Loures were sent to the Torre do Tombo.
In the late 1990s, the ecclesiastic records of the Torre Tombo were rearranged. It was then adopted an organisation by religious order, instead of the previous geographical pattern. In 2008, the Arquivo Histórico do Ministério das Finanças (Historical Archive of the Ministry of Finance), located in the old Monastery of Santa Joana, was abolished and all of its records were sent to the Torre do Tombo. Some were old records from the monastery, including those sent to the Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacionais a century before.
The long journey of the documentation of the monastery might explain why some records included in this fonds are older than the monastery itself.
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(source: Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo online database)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Mosteiro de Santa Joana was the home of the Dominican priests for nearly 200 years. In 1578, before leaving Portugal for the battle of Alcácer Quibir, the nobleman D. Álvaro de Castro established in his will that, in case his family line had no direct heirs, his estates of Andaluz, in Lisbon, should be given to the Dominicans for a new monastery to be built. In 1697, the priests finally received these lands and immediately started planning their stay. The priests decided to make Joana, Princess of Portugal, the patroness of the new monastery, as she had recently been beatified by the Pope. The constructions began in 1699, taking advantage of the already existing residential houses and converting them into religious facilities. Around 1608, the priests moved in, and the buildings were finally finished in 1712.
The Dominicans turned the new premises into a place to prepare and teach the priests later sent on missions to East India.
With the Great Earthquake of 1755, following an order of King D. José I, the priests left the monastery, since the Dominican nuns of the monasteries of Anunciada and Rosa needed a new place to stay as their houses had been destroyed. New constructions were made to accommodate the nuns, who were more numerous than the priests. A record from 1823 mentions that 22 Dominican nuns, one from the Order of Saint Bernard and two pupils who served in the choir were then living in the monastery.
In 1833, a decree issued by the Liberal regime ordered the extinction of all religious orders in Portugal. However, the female orders would only be suppressed after the death of the last nun. In 1890, the last nun of the Monastery of Santa Joana died and its building was transferred to the State. In the last years of the century, part of the facilities were destroyed as many were in poor condition. In addition, these premises were also in conflict with the new urbanistic plan for the area.
After the monastery's extinction, the building became consecutively the headquarter of several institutions, including the archives of the Fazenda Nacional (National Estate) and the Comissão dos Monumentos Nacionais (Comission of National Monuments). In 2014, it was sold to a hotel company.
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(source: LXConventos - Online Database of Convents of Lisbon)
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System of arrangement
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Each storage unit has its specific numerical order. There is apparently no chronological order or other criteria in the organisation of the bundles.
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Access, restrictions
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No restrictions, except for records in poor condition or available in digital format.
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Finding aids
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Unpublished finding aids available in Torre do Tombo:
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"Relação dos documentos do Convento de Santa Joana que, em virtude do Decreto de 2 de Outubro de 1862 foram transferidos para o Arquivo da Torre do Tombo, recebidos em 13 de Novembro de 1863" (Inventory of the documents from the Convent of Santa Joana that, after the decree of October 2, 1862, were transferred to the Archive of Torre do Tombo, received on November 13, 1863), cadernetas (booklets) 1-3. (C 395-C397).
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Author of the description
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Inês de Sá and Teresa Oliveira, 2021.
