Convent of Nossa Senhora ds Piedade / Convento de Nossa Senhora ds Piedade

In 1476, the brothers João Baptista and Urbano Lomelino arrived on this island, belonging to the oldest and most distinguished families of Genoa (see Lomelino). It was the second of these brothers who founded this convent and initiated the construction works, which death did not allow him to finish. Upon his death in 1518, he bequeathed his assets in favor of his nephew Jorge Lomelino and his descendants, with the obligation to complete the construction of the convent, to maintain it, and to support six religious men when alms were lacking. Joana Lopes and Isabel Correia, wife and mother-in-law of Urbano Lomelino, built the chapel of Sant'Ana in the church of this monastery, which served as the chapter house for the community, and they were buried there. Jorge Lomelino died on December 9, 1548, and was buried in the church of the same convent.

“After the extinction of the religious orders,” wrote the annotator of the Saudades in 1873, “and after a fierce dispute that lasted for several years, the convent was restored to the successors of the founder, because he, with foresight, perhaps in a unique example, determined this in the respective testamentary clause, given the case of the convent being extinct in the future”.

Of the convent and church, which did indeed pass into the possession of the founder's descendants, there are no traces remaining today.