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TOMAR |
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TOMAR , 34km east of Fátima, is famous for the Convento de Cristo,
an artistic tour de force which entwines the main military, religious
and imperial strands in the history of Portugal. However, it's an
attractive town in its own right - especially during the Festas dos
Tabuleiros , in the first week of July, when the place goes wild - and
you should aim to spend a couple of days here if you can.
Built on a simple grid plan, Tomar's old quarters preserve all their
traditional charm, with whitewashed, terraced cottages lining narrow
cobbled streets. On the central Praça da República stands an elegant
seventeenth-century town hall, a ring of houses of the same period and
the Manueline church of São João Baptista , remarkable for its octagonal
belfry and elaborate doorway. Nearby, at Rua Joaquim Jacinto 73, you'll
find an excellently preserved fourteenth-century Synagogue , now the
Museu Luso-Hebraicoa Abraham Zacuto (daily 10am-7pm; free); in 1496 Dom
Manuel ordered the expulsion or conversion of all Portuguese Jews, and
the synagogue at Tomar was one of the few to survive.
The Convento de Cristo (Tues-Sun 9.15am-12.30pm & 2-6pm; winter pm only;
¬2.50) is set among pleasant gardens with splendid views, about a
quarter of an hour's walk uphill from the centre of town. Founded in
1162 by Gualdim Pais, first Master of the Knights Templar, it was the
headquarters of the Order. The heart of the complex remains the Charola
, the temple from which the knights drew their moral conviction. It is a
strange place, more suggestive of the occult than of Christianity; like
almost every circular church, it is ultimately based on the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, for whose protection the Knights
Templar were originally founded. However, as the Moorish threat receded,
the Knights became a challenge to the authority of European monarchs. In
Spain this prompted a vicious witch-hunt and many of the Knights sought
refuge in Portugal.
The highlight of the convent is the ornamentation of the windows on the
main facade of its Chapter House , where maritime motifs form a memorial
to the sailors who established the Portuguese empire. Later João III
(1521-57) transformed the convent into a thoroughgoing monastic
community, adding dormitories, kitchens and no fewer than four
cloisters. The adjoining two-tiered Great Cloisters comprise one of the
purest examples of the Renaissance style in Portugal.
Tomar has a pleasant all-year campsite (tel 249 321 026) in town and a
number of reasonable pensions , each with a restaurant : Tomarense (tel
249 312 948; £10-15/$16-24/¬18-27), near the bus station, and Luz (249
312 317; £15-20/$24-32/¬27-36) and the very popular Residencial União
(tel 249 323 161; £15-20/$24-32/¬27-36) in the centre of town, both at
Rua Serpa Pinto.
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