Tomar

Descend to Vila Nova and continue east on N113 another 20 kilometers to Tomar, one of the oldest cities in Portugal. The site was originally awarded to the Knights Templar when Afonso Henriques, Portugal’s first king, persuaded them to help fight the Moors in the 12th century. When the Pope subsequently disbanded them, King Diniz created the Order of the Knights of Christ to replace them, and the new order appropriated the castle as their headquarters. The wealth of this new order, always close to the royal family, was later to facilitate the great age of discovery. Henry the Navigator was its Grand Master during much of the 15th century, and the order sponsored numerous exploratory voyages along the coast of Africa, its holdings there and in the East Indies making it the richest knightly order in Christendom. Times changed, however, and in the early 16th century the order became monastic. The old Templar Castle walls surround the Convento de Cristo convent inside. Be sure to allow enough time to investigate fully the elaborate complex and its multiple cloisters. The Templar church, called the rotunda, has 16 sides, in imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Two stellar examples of Manueline-style architecture are found here in the entrance and window of the church, both painstakingly and ornately carved. Manueline decorative motifs, as you’ll note here, emphasized marine elements such as masts, ropes, and anchor chains, as well as natural ones such as trees. The town of Tomar occupies an appealing spot on the bank of the River Nabao. There is an unusually pretty riverside park with a lovely waterfall along the edge of the placid river as it flows through the center of town. Besides its enchanting setting, as you might suspect, other notable sights in town consist mainly of churches and chapels.