Convento de Santa Clara

The monastery of the Clarisas nuns was the first female convent in the Canary Islands. The presence and history of the Poor Clares in the Canary Islands dates back to 1547, the date on which ten nuns arrived in the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, coming from the Urban Monasteries of San Antonio de Baeza and Regina Coeli of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Don Alonso Fernández de Lugo, son of the conquistador Don Bartolomé Benítez, in 1544, had made a will in La Orotava leaving 2000 gold doublings for the foundation of a female convent, since there were none on the islands. There is a museum here with all kinds of priceless antiquities, but the highlight is the audiovisual presentation about the history of the nuns and how exactly they arrived in La Laguna all those decades ago.