Church of the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Esperança - Parish of São José

It belonged to the Order of Santa Clara or Clarissa, and its patron was the Donatary Captain of São Miguel, later Count of Ribeira Grande. It was built in the first half of the 16th century. Throughout the centuries this construction underwent several improvements, like the frontispiece of the Church in the 19th century.

The convent church is one of the most beautiful in the city: as examples of this, a remarkable altar with gilded carving and tiles in the main chapel and main body of the temple, dating from the twentieth century. In the lower choir, there are some tombs of nuns, while on the walls there are tiles depicting the Nativity of Mary and Easter, created by António de Oliveira Bernardes at the beginning of the 18th century; it’s also here that we can find the Chapel of the Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, of octagonal shape and date from the 18th century. On the altar, in a niche, is the image of the Santo Cristo, with legendary origins, for it was an offer of the Pope to two nuns who went to Rome to ask permission to build a convent in Caloura in the 16th century; the Pope not only authorized but also offered the image of Ecce Homo. In the high choir, there is a beautiful set of altars of different artistic periods, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, along with several images of the Holy Family and Saints and still the baby Holy Christ. Inside the fence of the convent, there is the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Paz, lined with 18th-century tiles; the cistern, built at a lower level of the terrain, whose frontispiece mimics a miniature temple.

The convent holds a remarkable treasure, called the Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, dating from the 18th century. It is formed by five pieces of great apparatus: the Scepter; the Rope; the Medallion, the Crown of Thorns and the Halo, forming one of the most beautiful sets of its kind in Portugal.