Seminario Mayor - Convento de San Felipe de Neri

The building houses the Viseu Seminary and was begun in the late seventeenth century (for the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri) but due to economic constraints construction was delayed till the following century. The Baroque church (designed by Antonio Mendes Coutinho) has an impressive nineteenth century pipe organ from the cathedral. The facade has the blazon of Julio Francisco de Oliveira and is topped with a granite cross. Attached to the chapel (at the foot of the temple) is the bell tower. From the initial construction only the cloister, church and entrance with access stairs are preserved, the rest was destroyed by fire in 1841 and rebuilt.