Tomar, on the banks of the Nabão river in the Ribatejo, is inseparable from the Knights Templar. In 1159 King Afonso Henriques gave these lands to the order, and the grand master Gualdim Pais founded a castle here in 1160 that became the Templars' headquarters in Portugal. When the order was dissolved in 1312, King Dinis persuaded the pope to transfer its property and knights to a new order, the Order of Christ, based in Tomar, whose wealth financed the maritime discoveries: the red crosses on the caravels' sails were its emblem.
The Convent of Christ
On the hill above the town, the Convent of Christ, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, brings together eight centuries of architecture. Its heart is the Charola, the twelfth-century Templar rotunda, a polygonal church inspired by the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, its interior entirely painted and gilded in the sixteenth century: it is said the knights attended mass on horseback. On the west side of the Manueline church is the famous Chapter House window by Diogo de Arruda, the best-known example of Manueline decoration, with ropes, coral, seaweed, chains and the armillary sphere, symbols of the age of discovery. The convent has eight cloisters, including the grand Cloister of John III, a masterpiece of the Portuguese Renaissance.
The town
Tomar's centre has a regular plan laid out under Henry the Navigator, governor of the order. On Praça da República stand the town hall and the church of São João Baptista, with a Manueline portal. In a nearby lane is the fifteenth-century Tomar synagogue, the best preserved from medieval Portugal, now the Abraão Zacuto Luso-Hebraic Museum. By the Nabão, Mouchão park has a large water wheel of Arab origin.
The Festa dos Tabuleiros
Every four years, in July, Tomar celebrates the Festa dos Tabuleiros, one of Portugal's most spectacular festivals, linked to the cult of the Holy Spirit: hundreds of young women parade carrying tabuleiros on their heads, tall towers of bread decorated with paper flowers and topped by a crown, as tall as the bearers themselves.
Surroundings
Outside town is the seventeenth-century Pegões aqueduct, six kilometres long, which carried water to the convent. About fifteen kilometres away, the Castelo de Bode dam forms a large lake with river beaches and water sports. Tomar is linked to Lisbon by train (about two hours) and is an hour and a half by car; Fátima and Almourol castle are nearby.