Convento de Nossa Senhora do Desterro — Local services in Monchique

Passing through Monchique my partner and I were looking for a thrilling experience... Usually ruins of old building are an excellent way of having creepy vibes and invent spooky stories so we were exited to discover these ruins in Google maps. However, it caught our eye that these ruins had "only" 3.6 stars. As an experienced "urbex explorer", it is not common! Therefore we checked the comments... and "dear lord thank you!" the ruins come on with the package "nice crippled warden" and "funny looking guitare player insulting foreigners". To some, it might discourage, but not us! Actually we were delighted to live the "full package experience"... The warden was extremely sweet, showing us around, displaying "fun facts" knowledge in the middle of his scrap and chickens, a plate is there to collect funds but he's not pushy at all, in fact we did not have spare and it didnt cross his mind to ask for anything. On the other hand thats true that the place is not clean and somewhat vandalized but it reinforce the mystic aura, and the abbaye is huge! with a patio and two stores roofless chapel. To complete the experience, luckily going back to the village we crossed the notorious guitar player and had a short interaction with him! Complimenting him on his skills (which are truly good) he asked where we were from and saying from France he insulted us of all names! Among other things about our mothers that we are the worse of all, even worse than the German, etc... He smells bad and is really dirty but harmless. In short we had the full package and it was our best experience...

Most memorable place to visit in all of Monchique. However, not without risks.

Upon arrival at the dirt road you will be welcomed by a man with a guitar who is guarding the holy grounds.

After passing, you will arrive at the convent where a little man will be welcoming you. Confusion might be stirred as the outside walls of the holy building are screaming the exact opposite. However, your emotions and curiosity will take the upper hand and lead you into his beautiful garden full of flowers and life.

At this point there is no return and you will quickly be deceived to walk into a dark hallway stocked with alcohol, medicinal drugs and onions. At the end of the hallway you will find another garden. Have a look around at what once was an oasis of religion and prayer and now smells like beer and chickens. Behind one of the walls of the garden you will find the old church. As you walk into the door opening you feel a satanic presence. The walls have been drawn up with words like “malditos” (cursed) and alcohol was sprayed around the floor to keep out any Christian spirits.

Beware to watch your back and not wander around too much. By now you have seen enough and it’s time to get out of there. Throw some money at the little man on your way out to avoid being offered to the antichrist.

Watch out for the heathen with the guitar on your way back to civilisation. Don’t make eye contact as his chants have now turned into...

A beautiful derelict monastery, with some issues as explained below. It's an uphill treck to get to which in my opinion (should) adds to the experience. The last part of the treck is a bit rough and steep Caretaker (owner?) lives onsite in one of the rooms upstairs and welcomes you inside. He tends to some chickens which he keeps inside one of the roofless spaces. He also cultivates the front area of the monastery, and has taken over some of the other rooms for storage, gardening etc. You will have to walk through what looks like his main storage area/living room/(cooking area?) before entering the monastery. Once inside, you really only have a choice of two rooms to see as the other spaces have been taken over. Inside could be kept cleaner, with some broken glass, plastic etc littering the area. Also, some strange hippie art involving leaves,branches, hand painting etc in what used to be perhaps the chapel. I'd rather admire the weathered stonework underneath. My theory is that the caretaker gets wasted and has a bit of a party after hours. Overall, you can get some good pictures if you know what you're doing. Really should be respected, cleaned up, vacated and better maintained as a ruin. I feel there is a lot more to see if some archeological and preservation work was carried out. It would then be...