The A. de Almeida Fernandes Prize 2020, jointly organised by the municipalities of Ponte de Lima and Viseu, was awarded to Ana Rita Rocha, an integrated IEM researcher and currently a member of the Vinculum project team, for her study “A assistência em Coimbra na Idade Média: dimensão urbana, religiosa e socioeconómica (séculos XII a XVI)” (Charitable assistance in Coimbra in the Middle Ages: urban, religious and socioeconomic dimensions (12th to 16th centuries)).

The award winning work corresponds to her doctoral thesis defended in September 2019 at the University of Coimbra in which the researcher sought to study in depth the practices of charity and assistance to the poor and sick in Coimbra during the Middle Ages, focusing on both individual and institutional charitable practices, led, to a large extent, by the multiple hospitals and brotherhoods founded in the city during that timeframe.

The award ceremony for the A. de Almeida Fernandes Prize was held on 28th May, at the Terceiros Museum, in Ponte de Lima, the municipality responsible for the 2020 edition of the said Prize.