History
The institution was created in 1900, by the initiative of Prince Alfonse, brother of King Charles I of Portugal, with the objective of educating the daughters of the officers of the Portuguese Army and Navy. It was installed in the building of the former Monastery of Saint Denis of Odivelas.
Initially, it was named Instituto Infante Dom Afonso (Prince Alfonse Institute). In 1910, it was renamed Instituto Torre e Espada (Tower and Sword Institute) and, in 1911, Instituto Feminino de Educação e Trabalho (Feminine Institute of Education and Labor). In 1942, it became the Instituto de Odivelas and, in 1988, the last name was adopted.
In a controversial decision taken in 2013, the Minister of National Defense José Pedro Aguiar-Branco ordered in the closing of the IO in the end of the school year of 2014/2015. Their students are being integrated in the Military College, which was transformed from a boys' school into a mixed gender school. This decision is being opposed by the former students and parents organizations of both schools.
Alphons is a male given name recorded from the 8th century in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. In the later medieval period it became a standard name in the Hispanic and Portuguese royal families.
Dom John V, known as the Magnanimous and the Portuguese Sun King, was King of Portugal from 9 December 1706 until his death in 1750. His reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.
Denis, called the Farmer King and the Poet King, was King of Portugal. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile, and grandson of Afonso II of Portugal, Denis succeeded his father in 1279. His marriage to Elizabeth of Aragon, who was later canonised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, was arranged in 1281 when she was 10 years old.
Coimbra is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of 319.40 square kilometres (123.3 sq mi). The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest city of the district of Coimbra and the Centro Region. About 460,000 people live in the Região de Coimbra, comprising 19 municipalities and extending into an area of 4,336 square kilometres (1,674 sq mi).
The Most Serene House of Braganza, also known as the Brigantine dynasty, is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Americas.
Infante, also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to the sons and daughters (infantas) of the king, regardless of age, sometimes with the exception of the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne who usually bears a unique princely or ducal title. A woman married to a male infante was accorded the title of infanta if the marriage was dynastically approved, although since 1987 this is no longer automatically the case in Spain. Husbands of born infantas did not obtain the title of infante through marriage, although they were occasionally elevated to the title de gracia at the sovereign's command.
The Kingdom of the Algarve, after 1471, Kingdom of the Algarves, was a nominal kingdom within the Kingdom of Portugal, located in the southernmost region of continental Portugal, until the end of the monarchy in 1910.
Constanza Manuel of Villena, was a Castilian noblewoman who by her two marriages was Queen consort of Castile and León and Infanta of Portugal.
The University of Évora is a public university in Évora, Portugal. It is the second oldest university in the country, established in 1559 by the cardinal Henry, and receiving University status in April of the same year from Pope Paul IV, as documented in his Cum a nobis papal bull. Running under the aegis of the Society of Jesus meant that the university was a target of the Marquis of Pombal's Jesuit oppression, being closed down permanently in 1779 and its masters either incarcerated or exiled.
Dom Peter, Duke of Coimbra, KG, was a Portuguese infante (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King Dom John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. In Portugal, he is known as Infante Dom Pedro das Sete Partidas [do Mundo], "of the Seven Parts [of the World]" because of his travels. Possibly the best-travelled prince of his time, he was regent between 1439 and 1448. He was also 1st Lord of Montemor-o-Velho, Aveiro, Tentúgal, Cernache, Pereira, Condeixa and Lousã.
Infante Dom Afonso of Braganza, Duke of Porto was a Portuguese Infante of the House of Braganza, the son of King Luis I of Portugal and his wife, Maria Pia of Savoy. From 1908 to the abolition of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910 he was the Prince Royal of Portugal as heir presumptive to his nephew, King Manuel II.
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Jean Fonteneau, dit Alfonse de Saintonge or João Afonso in Portuguese was a Portuguese navigator, explorer and corsair, prominent in the European age of discovery. He had an early career in Portugal and later served the King of France.
The Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa is a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Braganza, the former Portuguese Royal Family. The current Grand Master of the Order is Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the Head of the House of Braganza.
The Royal Equestrian and Military Order of Saint Michael of the Wing is a Portuguese Roman Catholic dynastic order that is believed to have been founded in 1147 in the Alcobaça Monastery in Alcobaça, Portugal, by King Afonso I of Portugal, in commemoration of the Conquest of Santarém from the Moors in 1147. The name was chosen in honour of the military Saint Archangel Michael, who assisted in the victory in the shape of a wing in the sky.
Isabella of Urgell, Duchess of Coimbra was a Catalan noblewoman of the Urgell branch of the House of Barcelona. She was the wife of Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra.
The Monastery of Saint Denis is located in the city of Odivelas, near Lisbon, in Portugal. The feminine Cistercian convent was founded by King Dinis I and was built during the 14th century in Gothic style. It is the burial place of the king. From 1900 to 2015, it housed the Instituto de Odivelas, an internal college for girls.
Dom Afonso was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the eldest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza.
The University of Lisbon was a public university in Lisbon, Portugal. It was founded in 1911 after the fall of the Portuguese monarchy and was later integrated in the new University of Lisbon along with the former Technical University of Lisbon.
Dom Martinho de Ataíde, 2nd Count of Atouguia, was a 15th-century Portuguese nobleman and diplomat. In 1455, he was granted the lordship of the Canary Islands, by donation from King Henry IV of Castile, which he later sold to the Count of Viana.
