Carmo Convent

Carmo Convent is a roofless church ruin in Santa Maria Maior, Lisbon, where tall Gothic columns and pointed arches rise directly into the open air. The stone walls form a rectangular floor plan with a long central nave flanked by slender pillars.

Nuno Álvares Pereira, a Portuguese military commander, founded the monastery in 1389 as a seat for the Carmelite Order. The devastating earthquake of 1755 caused large sections of the vault to collapse, and the ruin has remained roofless ever since.

The roofless interior transforms the former church into a memorial space where visitors walk beneath open arches. People come here to witness the lasting mark left by the earthquake that reshaped Lisbon forever.

The entrance is located on Praça do Carmo in the Chiado district and can be reached by lift or steep lanes. A small archaeological museum inside displays artifacts and tombstones along the side walls of the former nave.

Along the side walls stand old sarcophagi and stone tombs that originally lay underground and were uncovered when the museum was set up. In the rear section, low plants and grasses grow directly on the former church floor, now exposed to the weather.