Cross Cells

Beautiful city square. Central point of the history of the expansion of the city towards Santo António dos Olivais. In need of a renewal, especially in terms of traffic flows for decades. It will not be this year, after what happened to the award. Urgent to do something.

Cruz de Celas is a Portuguese neighborhood located in the center of Coimbra. Without defined limits, Celas is not a parish, despite the fact that most of this neighborhood is found in the territory of the parish of Santo António dos Olivais. Generally speaking, the area designated as Celas will have the Jardim da Sereia to the south, the Conchada to the west, the current facilities of the Pediatric Hospital of Coimbra to the north and the Olivais to the east. The center of this area is known as Largo da Cruz de Celas. Celas is an important area not only for the city but also for the entire Central Region of the country, here we can find hospitals, schools, colleges and university institutes, banks, countless other services or infrastructures intrinsic to the life of the city. It is also in this area of ​​the city of Coimbra that the Monastery of Celas or Monastery of Santa Maria de Celas is located, created and founded in the 19th century. XIII, being that the Monastery of Celas was female and belonged to the Cistercian Order. It was founded around 1221 by Infanta D. Sancha, daughter of D. Sancho I, granddaughter of el-Rei D. Afonso Henriques on a property called "Vimaranes de Coimbra". This Monastery was originally quite small and initially held 12 nuns, so each lived in cloistered prayer in a small room called a "cell". As it held and had been ordered to be built and founded by the daughter of a monarch, the building held a secret passage, in order to ensure that in the event of war or if it was surrounded, there was always a safe escape. That secret passage, still in 1995, was very visible., Coming from the monastery, passing under the road and its exit was located next to the Martim de Freitas school.