The Convent of Saint Joseph () is a former convent and current cultural centre of Lagoa, situated in the civil parish of Lagoa, urbanized part of the city of Lagoa, Portugal. Built on the north edge of the old quarter, with its belvedere tower straddling the main road north to Silves, it hosts exhibitions of painting, photography, sculpture and pottery, as well as various shows and discussions in its auditorium. History The convent appears to have been founded sometime between 1710 and 1713 (it is known to be in existence in 1730), by members of the Carmelite order of nuns, who fostered and educated abandoned girls. There still exists a (now disused) “baby wheel” or “foundling wheel” in the convent for the anonymous relinquishing of unwanted babies. The original building was seriously damaged in the 1755 earthquake and was rebuilt thereafter. In 1834 the government of Portugal suppressed all religious orders and monastic houses in the country. The institution continued to function as a foster home, probably as an “Association of Poor Girls”. In 1876, after church-state relations had been more or less normalized, the convent was re-opened as a girls' school by a number of Third Order Dominican Sisters (or non-cloistered nuns). The establishment was well supported both in terms of recruitment and money by the local community. (While the law still forbade cloistered convents, “third order” institutions – including schools – under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical dioceses were allowed.) The school normally had about 30 boarders and 60 day students. After the founding of the Portuguese First Republic in 1910, there was a formal separation of church and state under which the state took over all educational functions; the Convent was closed and the building came into the hands of the Comissão Jurisdicional dos Bens das Extintas Congregações Religiosas (Legal Commission for the Assets of Extinct Religious Congregations). At that time the São José convent was the only one in the Algarve. Much of the contents were sold or stolen; very few remain in Lagoa today. In 1924 the building and grounds were purchased from the Comissão by the town of Lagoa which used it as a primary school up until the 1970s when a new purpose-built school was opened. At various times space in the convent was used for public offices – offices for the civil parish of Lagoa e Carvoeiro, for the engineering and service