Mosteiro de São João Novo, Porto

At Largo de São João Novo, this is Igreja de São João Novo, a Catholic church within Porto’s historic centre. Notice the façade’s imposing scale and carved texture. The building served as the convent church for Augustinian Hermit friars known as the Gracianos, whose convent adjoins the church along its eastern side.

That community established its house late in the sixteenth century on the site of the former parish church of São João de Belomonte. When religious orders were suppressed in eighteen thirty-four, the friars were forced out. The former convent became Porto’s Criminal and Correctional Court in eighteen sixty-three, and the court still operates there. Across the largo, the Palácio de São João Novo was built late in the eighteenth century in the Baroque manner, often attributed to Nicolau Nasoni; it later served as a military hospital during the Siege of Porto and as an ethnography museum.