Underground museum, roman ruins and Templar tower (Tomar ~ Portugal)

 6 September 2022

From Aveira we headed south to Tomar and en-route stopped at a few interesting places - a museum in some old wine caves, some impressive Roman ruins and a templar castle.

The Aliança Underground Museum has to have one of the oddest and most eclectic collections we have seen and can only be viewed as part of a guided tour. So for 7 euro each we (just the two of use) were guided for a couple of hours round the museum (which is in the wine caves of an old winery) by our guide. The rooms visited were:

 ● A collection of phallic burial jars

 ● Massive collection of African masks form the 1950s

 ● Geodes from all around the world

 ● Fossils (with the largest private collection of fossilised fish in the world)

 ● Ceramics

 ● Indonesian art

 ● A photographic exhibition by a Indian artist 

 ● An exhibition on the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi

 ● The active wine/brandy cellar

The tour was then rounded off with wine tasting (we ended up buying a nice bottle of Sangria). The tasting also included a couple of pork buns each - now when I say pork buns these were freshly baked (still warm) crusty buns which had been filled with shredded suckling pig just before baking - yum.

Feeling well sated we headed south to our next stop - Ruínas de Conímbriga. Conímbriga is one of the largest Roman settlements excavated in Portugal where the ruins consist of various structures, including a forum, basilica and commercial shops, thermal spas, aqueducts, insulae, fountains, private homes and domus in addition to a Christian basilica. Very  impressive.

After a good couple of hours wandering around the ruins we headed further south to Torre de Dornes an odd five sided tower build by the Knights Templar on the banks of the river Zerere as a defensive bastion during the Christian reconquering of this region and later, when things were a bit more peaceful,  converted into a bell tower for a adjoining church.

The adjoining church was tiny but did have a very impressive organ.

 

From here it's to Tomar where we will well and truly be in Knights Templar territory.