Exhibition – Among Stone and Moss, Saint Francis's Nativity Scene
Owing to its unique construction, which blends seamlessly with the natural elements of the hills, and to the way of life of the Franciscan friars who inhabited it for more than 300 years in harmony with nature, the Convent of the Capuchos is a place naturally associated with the concept of sustainability. It is under this premise that, during the Christmas season, the monument hosts a collection of nativity scenes made from plants and trees originating from various regions of the globe, at the invitation of Professor Luís Mendonça de Carvalho, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Ethnobotany at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja. The connection between the nativity scene and this site also emerges through the founder of the religious order that created and inhabited this conventual house, Saint Francis of Assisi, responsible for the first staging of a nativity scene 800 years ago.
The exhibition will be on display in the Garden House of the Convent of the Capuchos from the last weekend of November and will remain open until Epiphany, and is available to all visitors to the monument.
About the exhibition
Set within the serene spirituality of the relic woodland surrounding the convent, the exhibition acquires a renewed meaning: each nativity scene, shaped from fibres, seeds, fruits or woods, evokes the humility that inspired the lives of the friars who once inhabited this place. Plant materials from different parts of the world, in turn, recall the traditions of the communities who worked these singular pieces.
In dialogue with the spirit of the place, the exhibition invites visitors to a contemplative and aesthetic experience. More than an ethnobotanical display, it is a celebration of biodiversity and of the spirituality associated with the birth of Christ, understood here as a metaphor for the life reborn in every plant and in every work of art created by human hands. A visit to the convent thus becomes a journey through the landscapes of the world and the many ways in which the sacred, the natural and the human come together.
The exhibition also includes samples of myrrh and frankincense, aromatic oleo-gum-resins from trees native to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, associated with the birth of Christ. Consecrated offerings symbolising Christ’s divine nature (frankincense) and mortal nature (myrrh), they also pay tribute to the earth and to the trees that, for millennia, have sustained the liturgy of the religions of the Levant and the East.
Accessibility
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