We hadn't planned on going in there prior to our arrival and didn't even know it existed until my wife spotted it while walking by.
The door was open to the street so we went inside and saw that you could climb the tower for only 2.00€ for a view of the city. We figured "why not," we were the only ones there and we always like a good view.
My memory of the day isn't the greatest but I believe that the price of admission gave us access to the small Chapel and the museum as well, though it's possible that we had to pay an extra 2.00€ for that. Either way we ended up doing both activities starting with the museum and then the Chapel.
The museum itself was tiny (one small room) with only a few things inside to look at. I didn't take many photos of it as you will see. I mainly focused on the Chapel and tower.
Very Brief History
The building was originally built as a monastic school in 1593 to 1604.
It was later used as a University until the mid 19th century before becoming an orphanage. It remained an orphanage until 1966.
It was declared a national monument in 1911 and added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in the year 2013.
The Bell Tower
We whipped through the museum and chapel in about three and a half minutes total. Like I said, it was small and there wasn't much to look at. The bell tower was really what we were there for anyway and it in itself was worth the low fee of admission.
Like most of these old church towers this one starts up a very narrow and winding stone staircase that makes you a little dizzy and nauseous by the time to you reach the top.
That opens up into the bell room that contains an old rickety wooden staircase fit for one individual person at a time.
I let my wife go first so she could check the safety of the staircase and report back to me ;)
Actually it's because I'm the designated photographer of the household.
You don't get shots like these by racing up ahead and rushing through things.
After climbing through a small hole in the ceiling you come to a platform on the roof of the tower.
From there you get a 360° panoramic view of the city of Coimbra.
We obviously took turns photographing each other in the standard "look out at the view" pose.