Batalha Monastery
Mosteiro da Batalha - Batalha Monastery.
"The Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Victoria, generally known as Batalha, was founded by King John I on the spot where the great battle that secured the independence of Portugal began. The date of its building is generally reckoned from 1388, when the king gave the Dominicans the deed of gift in the camp before Melgaço. The original plan was probably limited to the church, the royal burial-chapel, and the first cloisters (Claustro Real). ... The building-plan and the masons were also obtained through Philippa of Lancaster, probably from England. The original master-builders were Affonso Domingues (d. before 1402), a Portuguese, and Houguet or Huet (Hacket?), an Irishman".--Baedeker 1913
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Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil a... ... read more 
