Built in the 17th century, the Convent of Carmo is a former monastery in the municipality of Horta. Its community of nuns declined after several earthquakes affected the building, and it was eventually taken over by the Portuguese army to be used as a garrison.
The construction of this church can be said to be contemporary with the Carmo da Horta Convent, built from 1651, which belonged to the Third Order of Carmo and began after the works on the convent itself and was only completed in the 18th century.
Its construction was due to the intervention of Father Luís Lopes, first rector of the Jesuit College of Ponta Delgada who, in 1635, was forced by a storm to dock in Faial, when he was heading to the island of São Miguel. The fact is narrated in the work of Father António Franco published in 1720, where it is also recorded that the Colégio dos Jesuítas da Horta was built at the expense of Francisco Dutra de Quadros and his wife, Isabel da Silveira.
Construction of the Carmo da Horta Convent began in the 17th century, more precisely in 1652 and under the influence of D. Helena de Boim, wife of the then Captain-Major Francisco Gil da Silveira.
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