This sacred art museum, one of the most important in Galicia, occupies some of the chambers of the Saint Clare convent in Monforte de Lemos. The convent was founded in 1622 by Catarina de la Cerda y Sandoval, wife to Pedro Fernández de Castro, VII Count of Lemos. Catarina was ordained in this convent once she was widowed; This patronage is of vital importance, given that the collection houses part of the great artistic legacy from both of these nobles. The legacy includes magnificent paintings, sculptures, ivories, textiles and sumptuary objects (especially reliquaries). All these pieces were gathered by the Counts of Lemos during their viceroyalty in Naples from 1610 to 1616.