Page 176 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

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CONVENTO

DE CRISTO

EXPERIENCE Estremadura and Ribatejo Crowning the wooded hill that overlooks Tomar, the Convento de The “Bread” Cloister,
! E4 ⌂ 15-minute walk from Tomar centre £ Tomar @ From Lisbon,
Coimbra, Leiria # Jun–Sep: 9am–6:30pm daily (to 5:30pm Oct–May)
¢ 1 Jan, Easter, 1 May, 25 Dec ∑ conventocristo.pt
Cristo is a magnificent complex of chapels, cloisters and a medieval
castle, showing the wealth and importance of the Order of Christ.

Founded in 1160 by the Grand Master of the
where loaves were
Cloister of the
given to the poor
Templars, the Convent of Christ still retains
Crows, flanked
by an aqueduct
some reminders of these monk-knights and
the inheritors of their mantle, the Order of Christ.
Under Henry the Navigator, the governor of the
order from 1418, cloisters were built between the
Charola (the Templars’ church) and the fortress,
but it was the reign of João III (1521–57) that saw
the greatest changes. Architects such as
João de Castilho and Diogo de
Arruda, engaged to express the
order’s power and royal patron-
age in stone, built the church and
cloisters with dazzling Manueline
flourishes, which reached a
crescendo with the window in
the west front of the church.

Great Cloister

The Terrace of Wax,
where honeycombs
were left to dry

THE ORDER OF CHRIST
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the
crusading Order of the Knights Templar
helped the Portuguese in their battle
against the Moors. In return they were
rewarded with extensive lands and
political power. In 1314, Pope Clement V
was forced to suppress the order but, in
Portugal, King Dinis renamed it the
Order of Christ, and it inherited the
Templar’s properties. In 1356, Tomar
The Charola on the became the order's headquarters.
south side of the
Convento de Cristo
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