Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Seiça | Portugal Photo Spot

Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Seiça is an abandoned monastery that dates back to the mid-1100s. The first congregation housed in this monastery was the Order of the Holy Cross, followed by the Cistercian Order from 1195 to 1834, except for a brief spell between 1555 and 1560, in which the property was seized and donated to the Order of Christ. In 1834, after Portugal ordered the dissolution of all monasteries in the country, the Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Seiça was abandoned. The building was used by a rice husking company between 1911 and 1976, but it has been in a dire state of disrepair since then. There were plans of rehabilitating the property so the grounds may be fenced off – the timeline for the project has been stopped and re-started numerous times. (Paião, Portugal)