Convent of Christ, Santarém, PortugalTOMAR
Leaving in the clouds
We had a relaxing start and left
under the clouds – we were so lucky yesterday with the weather. I may should
mention that we didn’t stop at 175 Mill year old foot prints – as Paul was not
interested!!!! So we drove through to Tomar: here we had to stop here, because
Gine said we have to visit the headquarters of the Knights Templars. Already
approaching town, we could see that gigantic caste-church. Once we walked
through, we discovered it is even bigger than we thought. We did also pass the
Aqueduct before parking outside the wall.
Who are the Knight
Templars?
- after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 many Christians made pilgrimages to sacred sites in the Holy land – to protect them they founded the Knights Templars in 1119 in Jerusalem: their headquarters was in a wing of the Al-Aqsa mosque which they called the Temple of Salomon – to the Knights of the Temple
- They were a rich organisation: a Christian charity and Europe’s first great bankers
- People were depositing their money with the templars and given a check and could make withdrawals along their pilgrimage to the holy land: if they died the Templars kept their estate (which was quiet common)
- They built and managed around a thousand forts to aid the Christian pilgrims stretching all the way from Portugal to Jerusalem
- Tomar was founded in 1160 by the “Grand” Master Guadlim Pais of Portugal (By the way a Grand Master was a supreme commander – each country had their own Masters) – Pais went in 1139 to the Holy land and fought as a Knight Templar for 5 years and was ordinated as the 4th Grand Master of Portugal in 1157: he founded the castle of Tomar in 1160
- When the order was dissolved in the rest of Europe by the Catholic church in 1309, in Portugal it changed the name to the “Order of Christ” protected by King Dinis and in 1319 got recognised by the Catholic Church. The Order of Christ helped with the Reconquest of Portugal: in return they got rewarded with extensive lands and political powers
- Henry the Navigator built cloisters staring in 1418 and under King Joao III it got rebuilt to express the order’s power and royal patronage with the church and dazzling Manueline flourishes
- in 1834 when the Portuguese king dissolved all religious orders: as they had to much power and everything became property of the Portuguese state
Convento do Cristo
As it was not raining, we
decided to first check out the outside (which was a good decision). A viewpoint
at the parking lot and we also looked up at the old castle walls. The
interesting part is that we were in a castle from the 12th century
and walked through a monastery/church from the 15th century.
The castle walls: we
started out in the castle part and right after passing the gate you have this
amazing view on the church. This part got built in 1160 by the order of the
Knights Templars – and again they have here this huge cactus we love – as well
as a lot of orange trees and ruins. And you feel really important if you walk
up those stairs to the main complex. Already here we could see the Manueline
style – which was throughout the whole building and we saw it so often before
A Cloister: you walk in
and are greeted is one of those open squares with covered walkway around with
arcades –you see a lot of those cloisters here and each one has its own name –
there are so many cloisters that you literally can get lost between them. This
one has the typical blue-white Azueljo tiles and like everywhere here you can
see the 2 symbols: the cross of the Knight Templars and the round armillary
sphere (yes we become experts)
Prince Henry’s quarters:
he really follows us around on our trip: you can only see the ruins from where
he lived from 1420-1460
Portocarreiros chapel: with
beautiful tiles and scenes of the Virgin Mary: yes it is all painted on
blue-white-yellows tiles
New Sacristy: this was
the chapter house during Prince Henry’s time – the most amazing in here was the
ceiling. I mean don’t get me wrong the floor is amazing too, the walls are beautiful
– but what blows your mind is the ceiling: if you look you discover the cross
of the knights templars, the armillary sphere and the royal arms. Here we even
saw some of the blue-white Porcelains with the Templars cross on it, and as we
continue on we go through another cloister and entered the:
Charola/Rotunda: this is
clearly the highlight of the Convento– you can only look and look and it is
still unbelievable: ok let’s start you stand in the church and you totally
forget to look at it, as all eyes go towards the Rotunda which you enter
through a gigantic arch with beautiful paintings and you look towards the
Rotunda which is a huge round floor to ceiling monument with doorwayrs in
Islamic style and it is painted inside and out, has statues, lots of gold, lots
of art – the ceiling in the arched hallway is all painted – if you get a
glimpse inside it is more gold and painting and art and along the walls outside
more murals. I don’t think I ever saw something so unique and special –
especially when you think on how old that is from 1195 (that makes it over 800
years old). When you walk around the Rotunda there are a lot of little side
chapels (lots of gold here too) each on unique – but still the most amazing is
the Rotunda itself.
- This is the ancient Templar Romanesque oratory – you would not believe it if you haven’t seen it
- This is actually from the 12th century and it is inspired by the temple of Jerusalem – the paintings on the columns and stones are all that old. We could only stare: Gualdim Pais the Grand Master had it built under his supervision after inspirations bus structures in Jerusalem. He died in Tomar in 1195
- I found it interesting to read, that in the 90s they started to remove the whitewash and uncovered the underlying murals.
- The main body of the church itself is newer from 1510 in Manueline style
Main Cloister: has a
beautiful fountain and looked more like a palace with a fountain in the center.
We found a staircase going up to a terrace –we went up and had some gorgeous
views –we then got told that it is time to leave and that they want to close.
That is when we discovered, it was only open for a tour group and normally it
is closed – so we got lucky sneaking up and got this extra view all from the
top. From here we could see also the first time the Manueline window.
- It got built after the reform and it was the Order of Christ – which happened in 1529
- The main cloister is inspired by Italian architecture in European renaissance style
Manueline window: it
looks super old and has a lot of weird things – I’m not so sure we understand
the meaning – but it loos exceptional cool. We saw it from the top – from the
side and stood later also underneath it.
- Sculptured with hyper-realistic motifs, symbolizing the tree of life and the tree of Jesse
- This is the masterwork of Manueline architecture
Dormitory: Talk about big
– there are several gigantic wide hallways (yes there are tiles) – and we only saw
a small part of it, with lots and lots of doors (luckily each has a number) and
I’m sure I still wouldn’t be able to find mine. A few rooms were open and
fairly large and each had a nice window and a nice view – Paul complained about
the lack of heating and plumbing. We did discover at some point a giant
fireplace and chimney used for heating. The cross corridor we walked through
had 40 cells – and no the tiles are not new they are from the 17th
century. At one time we could go out on a Veranda and had an amazing view on
the countryside.
Chapter House: this is
the “church-like structure” in ruins
- a chapter house is the part of the monastery in which they held meetings, in monasteries they meet here daily for readings and listen to a senior monk talk
- they are normally large so they can hold all monks
- the name comes from “hold chapter” – which means the reading of correction of faults, assigning of tasks, reading of Martyrs
More Cloisters: we then walked
through 3 more cloisters – each one a bit different, in nearly each one we did
a whole circle as you could always find an open door and discovered something
else, like a storage room with many gigantic built-in storage containers.
Aqueduct do Convento do
Cristo: built it from 1593 – 1619: when the
water came the first time out the main fountain for king Filippe II visit. It’s
over 4 km long.
Lavatories: what is cute – there
is one small wing for latrines and washing and we could even see the opening
for the sewer which went into a manure chamber – ok thinking about on how many
lived here, that is not a big space.
We finally saw in a room a few
headstones: one with the sword of a knight’s templar as well as the symbol of
the knights templar’s cross
- the town itself was built as a garrison town to support he castle and the Knights templars and their missions
As it rains we decided not to
stop in Tomar – but do a quick round tour – we came by the statue of Gualdim
Pais (1118-1195) who was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and founder of
the city of Tomar and builder of the castle with techniques he picked up on his
holy land crusades.
Ponte Velha: through the rain
over cobble stones and one-way streets we crossed the river twice so we could
drive over the old Bridge.
With some repairs – we learned
that “Desvio” means detour and continued on with our journey.
What is so special about
Manueline Period & architecture??
- It started during Portugal’s age of discovery and reflects the wealth of the time and the many cultural influences: it’s ornamental – elaborate and intertwined
- It has maritime elements in it and is influenced by the styles and decorations’ which the explorers brought back from their discoveries
- You can see maritime elements: the armillary sphere (used for navigation), anchors, chains, shells, pearls, botanical motifs, symbols of Christianity, elements from newly discovered countries (Islamic filigree work, Indian, columns twisted with topes, semicircle arches, multiple pillars and lack of symmetry
- Manuels personal symbla was the armillary sphere or celestial globe: the universe with the earth at its center
- Manueline churches and monasteries were largely paid by the spice trade with Africa and India
- It was named after king Manuel I – who reigned during that time and only lasted from 1490-1520
2025-05-22