Convent, Aqueduct and Temllar Castles (Tomar ~ Portugal)

 7 September  2022

The town of Tomar was created inside the walls of the Convento de Cristo, constructed under the orders of Gualdim de Pais, the fourth Grand Master of the Knights Templar of Portugal in the late 12th century and was the last Templar town to be commissioned for construction and one of Portugal's historical jewels - which does explain the preponderance of the Templar Cross on walls, lamposts, roads, t-shirts etc..

The town has expanded slightly since then and now sits below the Convento de Cristo and the adjoining Knights Templar Castle.

The inside of the Convent is stunning. The art work on the ceiling, the frescos on the walls the layout of the courtyards, even simple staircases are beautiful.

Many monks lived there and their cells were heated by means of ducted vents all coming from a single chamber in which a massive fire was lit.

Water was bought to the Convent via a 6.5 km long aqueduct which still stands but no longer carries water.

About 20 kilometres south of Tomar lies Castelo de Almourol a small medieval castle on top of an islet in the Tagus river built by none other than the Knights Templar and was used as part of a defensive line during the Portuguese reconquering. Plus it  also controlled the flow of traffic on the river and the collection of taxes from river traffic.

Not a bad place to stop for a picnic lunch. 

At this point in time Sally was thinking "do I really want to go up those stairs?" and decided yes. Going up was fine, coming back down again when you could see the big drop and gravel uneven steps was another story.

Tomar is a small town that has a really nice vibe our favourite spot being the small Cafe on the riverside we found to have a relaxing beer at the end of the day.

Along with the trip out to Castelo de Almourol we headed west to Monumento Natural das Pegadas de Dinossáurios de Ourém/Torres Novas and to Basílica de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima.

The Pegadas de Dinossáurios (dinosaur  footprints) is situated on a limestone slab, where dinosaur footprints have been preserved over 175 million years, around 20 trails or tracks can be observed, including the longest track, 147 m long, of sauropod dinosaurs known to date in the world.

The last place to visit was Basílica de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima and honestly had no idea what to expect. Fatima is a serious religious oriented township - you want to buy a cassock - they've got shops for that. The square in front of the Basilica is massive and even on the crappy weather mid week day we visited there a lot of people about. Big queues for offerings (candles to be burnt on a pyre), people walking the length of the square on their knees etc...

Think there may be a few National supports will be upset when the find out that our beloved PM has been beatified. 

From Tomar we head south once more to drop the car off in Lisbon.