Museu Carlos Machado Santo Andre Centre

The museum is housed in the former convent with a cloister which closed after the last nun died in 1894. The nuns took vows of obedience, poverty, chastity and uphold the sacredness of life. This convent depicted them as living a life inside the church/cloister separated from the rest of society and it does not mention any particular charitable work that they did. Of particular interest was a large area overlooking the church floor and altar which was wrought iron barred was also defined by iron work and the outer perimeter of the area was lined with built in chairs where the nuns would meet in prayer several times a day. One imagines that when community masses took place, the nuns would overlook the scene but clearly be separated from it. Similarly, in the separate prayer rooms there are double layers of ironwork separating the nuns from the passing scenes on the street.
The introductory exhibit was an interesting timeline of Azorean important dates along side other dates and events in world history. A large part of the museum was about natural history, especially a huge collection of taxidermy preserved animals and birds.Read more