The Monastery of Tibães

Located in the municipality of Braga, the region of Mire de Tibães, is in a region of contrasts, typical of the Minho region with elevations of steep banks separated by flat valleys.



It is in this landscape of sharp reliefs where the intense agricultural occupation in the valleys is distinguished, the forest in the highest areas that surrounds the water lines and several devoured points at the top of the mountains that are intended for pastoral care that is the Monastery of Tibães, mother house of the Benedictine order in Portugal with its genesis in the year 1110, with Henrique and D. Teresa to donate to Tibães the lands adjacent to the monastery and to grant him the Letter of Couto.


Important element in the delimitation of this monastic complex and with its origin in the eighteenth century, the Fence occupies forty-three hectares and is limited by a stone wall with a length of almost three kilometers, composed of a set of agricultural fields, gardens and forests that are associated with the Monastery.


The hydraulics in Tibães dates back to the beginning of the 12th century with the issuance of the Carta de Couto and the respective exploration of the Cávado River. However, history begins to be told from the beginning of the 17th century (1614) with the record of the indication of the use of aqueducts for the conduction of the outer waters that came from the mines and to be used in the irrigation of agricultural fields and with the eighteenth century marking the great period of transformation at the level of the hydraulic system.


Tibães is an exemplary case study as a monastic complex that was respecting over the centuries the territory where it settled and taking advantage of the orography of the land and all the resources that existed there.


Primary Sources

Oliveira_1974_A Abadia de Tibães e o seu Domínio (1630-1680).pdf

A Abadia de Tibães e o seu domínio

Study about the Tibães Abbey, by Aurélio de Oliveira, Porto, 1974

Map and Location