Portugal 3 - The Knights Templars and their castle

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Tomar

Our stop for the night and for the next few days was to be the small town of Tomar founded in 1157 by the first grand master of the Order of the Templars Gualdim Pais. Upon entry to the town over the river the first thing that dominates is his castle on the hilltop above the town. The castle was built in the 12^th century and also contains the Convento de Christo. We pulled in with trepidation to the municipal campsite right in the middle of the town not knowing what it would be like. Their own website had been poor giving us little factual information. Upon arriving it was like heaven. Reception friendly and helpful giving us maps of the town, pointing out the points of interest – the castle , the numerous churches, the Jewish synagogue, the municipal swimming pool and the supermarket. The cost per night 14 euros including electricity. The site was a free for all but mainly empty which meant you had a choice of where to park. The showers hot and welcoming and a bread van came round in the morning at 9.

We parked up, plugged Suzy into the electricity and walked up over the river with its weir, its ducks and swans and into town. Along the way we sat in the cool park and watched the “Roman “ water wheel turning. The main street is narrow and cobbled with shops along each side and bars and restaurants including two Italians. We sat in the steaming heat of 33 degrees and ate pork in a white sauce with mushrooms, rice and chips. They were not quite chips as we know them being closer in thickness to crisps. A jar of sangria, an espresso and a liquor, free on the house rounded off the meal.

The main street Rua Serpa Pinta leads to the gothic church of Sao Joao Baptista on the Praca da Republica the main square of the town. The church is white with an elegant Manualine portal and was built in the 15^th century. We only peeped inside and found nothing special to write home about.

We slept badly that night partly due to the heat which did not die down and the barking of dogs in the distance. We have also noticed an abundance of feral cats on Portuguese camping sites.

Our second day started hot and continued to get hotter all day. In the morning there was a display of 3 D art in the town square and throughout the day a festival of last years living statue winners. Apparently this would go on through the weekend.

We walked up to the castle and convent. Entry fee 6 euros for normal and half price 3 euros for those over 65. We had no guide book nor any clues where we were going and the place to say the least is rambling. From the entrance is the castle keep and the ruins of the former royal quarters. Around these gardens full of oranges and blue and white tiled benches.

The rest of the building is devoted to the convent with its washing cloisters which were built around a pair of reservoirs, the cemetery cloister where the monks tombstones line the 15^th century walls. The Bread cloister where bread was doled out to the poor of the town and the Great cloister which was built in the 1550’s probably by Diego de Torralva and is Italianate in design. Everywhere the blue and white tiles. Concealed stairways of fantastical shapes lead to the Cloister of Wax where the honeycombs were dried. We saw the church with its complicated Manueline windows and mossy stones and then sat in the café eating Belem Egg Flan and some concoction of cake like a rum baba but filled with orange. This is the second lovely cake. In Porto I ate a thin pastry filled with some kind of cake filling and apples. Absolutely delicious and moreish.

The Charola the original Templers church which was 16 sided and drum shaped was closed for renovation work.

The rest of the day was spent whileing away the hours in the sun deepening the sun tan.

Day 2 at Tolmar and Suzy is growing roots as she loves the place just as much as we do. The campsite is a dream come true. There is always one place on holiday that holds your attention and takes you to its heart and Tolmar has been this place. The townsfolk are delightful. Nothing is too much trouble and they are polite to the extreme. The nights are fairly quiet apart from those dogs who do bark away the night but all in all it’s a place that has everything going for it.

We woke later planning to do very little apart get the washing down and walk around the town a bit more. The washing didn’t happen. The guy in reception told me to come back at 10 and he would sort it out but we decided to get out and explore while it was still relatively cool.

Our first port of call was the Ingreja Santa Oliva – the church of the Olives which was a Templar church and housed the grave of the first grand master. It was easy to find and on the way we passed the towns graveyard. Not one to pass a graveyard by I had to go in and have a look around Glenn on the other hand can take them or leave them when abroad so sat outside in the shade as the sun had now come up and was beaming down on us. The graveyard was impressive with row after row of immaculate gravestones each covered with flowers and a picture or pictures of the deceased. Around the edge – lacking a better description I suppose I call them the houses of the dead. Buildings of different sizes, some small, others large all with wrought iron doors, glass either clear or frosted and curtains over the day in some of them. In those you could see inside were small altars against the back walls and rows of shelves on which were stacked coffins some covered with what looked like table cloths.

After my wander around the graveyard we went into the church which seemed fairly simple. As we came out a old man sitting on the wall accosted us and spoke to us in English. He wanted to tell us all about his church and we sat in the sun as he told us the church was highly unusual with eight steps leading down into the body of the church and the nave. The Knights Templars believed that they needed to go down and be below God and be penitent. The Madonna and Child were unique as the Christ Child looked at his mother rather than out at the congregation and the Madonna instead of looking down on the Child looked out at the congregation. The bodies of all the knights with the exception of the first grandmaster had been removed from the church. His tomb hardly noticeable apart from a notice on the wall and an inscription in what looked like ancient script. We went back in and lit four candles to remember our families no longer with us. Not being religious we tend to do it just because it’s a nice thing to do.

For those readers who read the above about the four candles you may smile as we did when we thought about the Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett sketch about the fork handles.

Our next stop was down the narrow streets of the old town to the Jewish synagogue. This synagogue was the oldest in Portugal but had not been used since the Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Christianity in the 14^th century. Entry was free and a young lady gave us a guided tour of the very small one roomed building. She explained that the four pillars were to remind the Jews about the four mothers of the Hebrew nation. The small statues all around the building reminded the Jews that there were 12 tribes. She pointed out the acoustic holes and explained that sometimes concerts were held here. All the artifacts in the museum were donated from all around the world. Part of the building was now a house and the area for women destroyed.

We were lucky also to be in Tomar for their festival weekend. We were entertained through the day with artists pavement drawing in 3D. Another part of the festival surrounded the Living statues which were to be found all around the town. The theme Alice in Wonderland. At night the medieval knights were in town. The park had been transformed into a tilt yard with bales of straw designating the ring. Medieval fair ladies sat on a balcony whilst the horse riders showed their skills with their lances. There was much medieval style music and a commentary none of which we were able to understand. However by the sound of the music and the announcers voice we worked out who the baddy was.

Our house move was still on the go. The offer had gone up again twice and we had finally accepted it although it was pending until the weekend when the couple buying it were returning from holiday and wanted to inspect the back garden. Then to top it all the wife went into hospital with suspected gall stone problems. We were doing our best to enjoy our holiday but we were being bombarded with phonx

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Photos

Tomar
The square

Tomar
Tomb to the first grand master