The international public tender, published on Wednesday in the Diário da República, sets a base value of 5.8 million euros for the rehabilitation of the former Abacial Palace and the Cardinal’s Cloister at the Alcobaça Monastery in the Leiria district, along with additional amounts for the rehabilitation of the Barn and the requalification of the Obelisk Garden.
The rehabilitation will allow “the relocation of the monastery’s administrative services to this space and the installation of an elevator to facilitate movement between the ground floor and the first floor,” stated Hermínio Rodrigues, the mayor of Alcobaça (PSD), to Lusa agency.
The project is part of an investment supported by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), under inter-administrative contracts signed in November 2021, and according to the mayor, “these increased costs will be fully covered as the initial tenders failed to attract any bidders.”
The rehabilitation of the former Abacial Palace and the Cardinal’s Cloister was first submitted to an international tender with a base value of 4.3 million euros in February this year, but “attracted no bidders, necessitating an increase in the base value in the hope of attracting bids now,” the mayor explained.
According to information provided by the city council, the rehabilitation of the former Abacial Palace and the Cardinal’s Cloister is expected to cost 6.2 million euros, including VAT, the highest value among the three approved interventions for the Santa Maria de Alcobaça Monastery.
In addition to this work, the council opened a tender for the rehabilitation of the Barn and the upper area of the Cerca, “which was initially launched for 850,000 euros and only received a bid in the third tender, in February 2025,” when launched at a base value of 1.3 million euros.
The third intervention, the requalification of the Obelisk Garden, was put to tender on the same date, with a base price of 950,000 euros, with the tender “remaining desolate for a second time,” reported the president, noting that the project was only awarded on the third attempt, “with the updated value of 1.4 million euros.”
The three projects, initially totaling 6.5 million euros, now amount to 8.9 million euros, stated Hermínio Rodrigues, and are due for completion by June of next year.
The interventions, aligned with the Master Plan of the Alcobaça Monastery 2016-26, aim to “redefine, occupy, and enhance various vacant or dysfunctional spaces” in this heritage site, allowing for “the rehabilitation of interior and exterior spaces, whose permanent or seasonal use ensures their future conservation and transforms the monastic complex into a potential creative and dynamic hub for the region,” as described on the Cultural Heritage website.
The Alcobaça Monastery “is considered one of the largest and best-preserved buildings of the Cistercian Order across Europe and, through this funding, aims to improve energy performance and protect its infrastructure for future generations,” according to the PRR monitoring website.
The Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça was the first fully Gothic structure erected on Portuguese soil, with its construction beginning in 1178 by the Cistercian monks. It has been classified as a Portuguese National Monument since 1910 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1989.
