Monuments

A convent converted into a hotel.

According to the legend that surrounds the creation of this convent, Our Lady appeared to a shepherd on a burning hawthorn tree. In 1412, a hermitage was built on the spot, a small oratory erected by a canon from Évora Cathedral, which started to attract the attention of pilgrims. In 1458, given the importance that the spot had acquired, a church was founded and later a convent, due to the patronage of the Évora couple João Afonso and Leonor Rodrigues.

A year later the convent was handed over to the monks of St. Jerome, and in the following century it continued to benefit from the attentive support of the royal household, whose members were frequent visitors. D. Afonso V made a promise to the Lady of the Hawthorn before launching himself in the conquest of Arzila in 1471. His son and heir, D. João II, had the Courts de Évora assemble there in 1481, and he often stayed overnight in the convent, having had an inn built near the church. King D. Manuel I was also a frequent visitor to the Espinheiro Monastery, to which he made valuable donations. His daughter, Princess Mary, is buried there. Later King D. Sebastião had a hermitage erected next to the chancel, where he would retire to pray. Among the many distinguished names who passed through the Convent are the chronicler Garcia de Resende, author of the "Cancioneiro Geral", the first collection of poetry printed in Portugal, and who was buried there.

After the extinction of religious orders in 1834, the complex was vacated and the structures were plunged into great conservation difficulties. At the end of the 20th century, the convent was converted into a hotel, designed by the architect João Lucas Dias.