The Santa Clara Church was built in 1457 as a part of the Santa Clara Monastery in Port, Portugal. This construction took place at the request of the Franciscan nuns who wanted to replace the old 13th-century monastery.
The church was originally a Gothic church, but baroque and renaissance elements were added later. Its baroque door dating from 1697 was renovated in the 18th century with Renaissance elements such as Solomonic columns (columns with spiral shafts) and Corinthian capitals. The elaborate 18th-century gilded carvings decorate the interior of the Santa Clara Church.
With the death of the last nun at the end of the 19th century, the monastery was extinguished, and the building was ignored for a while. After the conservation and restoration work, the building was classified as a National Monument in 1910.
