The mountainous region received its charter in 1514 by King Manuel I. Found in Terras de Bouro old “Castro” of Chalcedon, erected by the Romans, we also find countless landmarks and millenary Roman road between Braga and Astorga, a town that is known for Geira national treasures of Portugal.

The Gerês symbolizes the harmony between man and nature, a constant sharing of activities and feelings between people and the inhospitable nature of the granite mountains shaped by time.

The crystal clear waters flows by streams and the clean air involves a great diversity of fauna and flora providing a continuous movement of calm and pleasure. Home of some animals like the semi wild horse Garrano, Wolves, Fallow Deers and many others endangered species.

A hiking trails net that allows to see places that would be impossible to find by car, an experience that should not be missed.

Major tourist destination for over a century is a brand to defend, preserve and learn to take advantage of its legitimate for the sustainability of the region. The Peneda-Geres Park offers products and services with great quality and aiming to provide welfare so necessary to our lives so hectic.

The Monastery of Batalha (Portuguese: Mosteiro da Batalha), literally theMonastery of the Battle, is a Dominican convent in the civil parish of Batalha, in the district of Leiria, in central region of Portugal. Originally, and officially known, as the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Victory (Portuguese: Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória), it was erected in commemoration of the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota, and would serve as the burial church of the 15th-Century Aviz dynasty of Portuguese royals. It is one of the best and original examples of Late Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.

The convent was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over theCastilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, fulfilling a promise of King John I of Portugal. The battle put an end to the 1383-1385 crisis.

It took over a century to build, starting in 1386 and ending circa 1517, spanning the reign of seven kings. It took the efforts of fifteen architects (Mestre das Obras da Batalha), but for seven of them the title was no more than an honorary title bestowed on them. The construction required an enormous effort, using extraordinary resources of men and material. New techniques and artistic styles, hitherto unknown in Portugal, were deployed.

Work began in 1386 by the Portuguese architect Afonso Domingues who continued till 1402. He drew up the plan and many of the structures in the church and the cloister are his doing. His style was essentially Rayonnant Gothic, however there are influences from the English Perpendicular Period. There are similarities with the façade of York Minsterand with the nave and transept of Canterbury Cathedral.

He was succeeded by Huguet from 1402 to 1438. This architect, who was probably fromCatalonian descent, introduced the Flamboyant Gothic style. This is manifest in the main façade, the dome of the square chapter house, the Founder’s Chapel, the basic structure of the Imperfect Chapels and the north and east naves of the main cloister. He raised the height of the nave to 32.46 m. By altering the proportions he made the interior of the church even seem narrower. he also completed the transept but he died before he could finish the Imperfect Chapels.

During the reign of Afonso V of Portugal, the Portuguese architect Fernão de Évoracontinued the construction between 1448 and 1477. He added the Cloister of Afonso V. He was succeeded by the architect Mateus Fernandes the Elder in the period 1480-1515. This master of the Manueline style worked on the portal of the Capelas Imperfeitas. Together with the famous Diogo Boitac he realized the tracery of the arcades in the Claustro Real. Work on the convent continued into the reign of John III of Portugal with the addition of the fine Renaissance tribune (1532) by João de Castillo. The construction came to a halt, when the king decided to put all his efforts in the construction of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.

The earthquake of 1755 did some damage, but much greater damage was inflicted by the Napoleonic troops of Marshal Masséna, who sacked and burned the complex in 1810 and 1811. When the Dominicans were expelled from the complex in 1834, the church and convent were abandoned and left to fall in ruins.

In 1840, king Ferdinand II of Portugal started a restoration program of the abandoned and ruined convent, saving this jewel of Gothic architecture. The restoration would last till the early years of the 20th century. It was declared a national monument in 1907. In 1980 the monastery was turned into a museum.

The Batalha convent was added in 1983 by UNESCO to its list of World Heritage sites.

Architecture 

The convent stands apart from the whole town, and although some dislike the implantation of newhotels by its side, they can always enjoy the interesting homes of the 18th century, the “guillotine” windows and the magnificent Manueline portal of the main church. It is one of the most fascinating pieces of Gothic and Manueline architecture within the country.

The ornate convent has been put up in limestone from Porto de Mós, that has turned yellow ochre in the course of time. It has an original Portuguese style, a mixture of rayonnant and flamboyant Gothic architecture combined with strong elements of English Perpendicular, that finds few parallels in Europe. As with all Dominican churches, this church has no bell tower.

The western façade, facing the large square with the equestrian statue of general Nuno Álvares Pereira, is divided in three by buttressess and huge pilasters : the Founder’s Chapel (Capelo do Fundador), the side wall of an aisle and the projecting portal. On the right side of this façade are the Imperfect Chapels (Capelas Imperfeitas), a separate octagonal structure added to the complex.

Off the east side, next to the church choir is the chapterhouse (Sala do Capitulo). The closier of King João I borders on the church and this chapterhouse. The structure continues into the cloister of King Afonso V (Claustro de D. Afonso V). On the northern side of the complex lies the Tomb of the Unknown Warriors.

The portal shows in the archivolt a profusion of 78 statues, divided over six rows, of Old Testament Kings, angels, prophets and saints, each under a baldachin. The splays on both sides display (inferior copies of) statues of the apostles, with one standing on a chained devil. The tympanumshows us Christ enthroned, sitting under a baldachin and flanked by the Four Evangelists, each with his own attribute.

Interior

Nave and choir

The church is vast and narrow (22m) in proportion to its height (32.4 m). The nave was raised to its present height by the second architect Huguet, altering the proportions of the church and giving it its present aspect. Its interior gives a sober and bare impression by its complete lack of ornaments and statues in the nave. The ribbed vaults, supported by compound piers, are closed by ornamentedkeystones. Light enters the church through ten stained-glass windows of the clerestory and the tall, traceried windows in the side walls and the transept and through the two rows of lanciform windows in the choir. The choir extends into two-bay transepts and consists of five apsidal chapels, with the central one projecting.

Batalha probably had the first workshop for stained-glass windows in Portugal. The art was introduced in Portugal by German artists from the regions of Franconia and Nuremberg. The oldest windows date back to the end of the 1430s. But the Manueline, ogival stained-glass windows in the choir date from the 1520s and 1530s and were produced by Portuguese masters, among them Francisco Henriques. They represent scenes from the lives of Christ and Mary: the Visitation, the Epiphany, the Flight to Egypt and the Resurrection of Christ.

The architect Mateus Fernandes and his wife are buried under a marble tomb-slab close to the portal. The tomb of the knight Martim Gonçalves de Maçada, who saved the king’s life during the battle at Aljubarrota, can be found close to the Capela do Fundador.

Founders’ Chapel

The square Founders’ Chapel (Portuguese: Capela do Fundador) was built between 1426 and 1434 by the architect Huguet on orders of King John I to become the first royalpantheon in Portugal. It gives a perfect synthesis between Flamboyant Gothic and the English Perpendicular style, as Philippa of Lancaster had brought along a few English architects. The chapel consists of three notional bays and a central octagon buttressed by eight piers, adorned with crockets, supporting deeply stilted arches.

The joint tomb of King John I of Portugal (d.1433) and his wife Philippa of Lancaster(d.1415) stands under the star vault of the octagon. Their statues lie in full regalia, with clasped hands (expressing the good relations between Portugal and England) and heads resting on a pillow, under elaborately ornamented baldachins. The coats of arms of the Houses of Aviz and Lancaster are put on top of these baldachins, together with the insignia of the order of the Garter. On the cover plate of the tomb are inscribed in repetition the mottos of the king Por bem (For the better) and of the queen Yl me plet (I am pleased).

This octagon is surrounded by an ambulatory with complex vaulting. At the south wall stand a row of recessed arches with the tombs of the four younger sons of John I, together with their spouses. From left to right: Ferdinand the Holy Prince (a bachelor, he died a prisoner in Fez in 1443, his bodily remains were later recovered and translated here in 1473), John of Reguengos, the Constable of Portugal (d.1442) with his wife Isabella of Braganza (d.1466), Henry the Navigator (under a baldachin, d.1460, a bachelor), andPeter of Coimbra (regent for Afonso V, 1438-1448, who was killed at the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449, his remains were only translated here in 1456) with his wife Isabella of Urgell (d.1459).

The three tombs on the west wall are copies of the original tombs of King Afonso V (r.1438–1481), John II (r.1481–1495) (empty because the soldiers of Masséna threw away the bones) and his son and heir, Prince Afonso (who died in an accident at the age of seventeen, predeceasing his father).

Unfinished Chapels 

As Capelas Imperfeitas (The Unfinished Chapels) remain as a testimony of the fact that the monastery was never actually finished. They form a separate octagonal structure tacked on the choir of the church (via a retrochoir) and only accessible from the outside. It was commissioned in 1437 by King Edward of Portugal (“Dom Duarte”, d.1438) as a second royal mausoleum for himself and his descendants. But he and his queen Eleanor of Aragon are the only ones buried here (Eleanor died in exile in Toledo in 1445, her remains were only translated here in 1456).

The original design, begun by Huguet, was altered by successive architects, especially Mateus Fernandes (who is buried inside the church). The octagonal rotunda has seven radiating hexagonal chapels. In the corners of the chapels stand the massive unfinished buttresses, that were intended to support the vault. These pillars, designed by Diogo Boitac, are decorated with Manueline motives carved in stone.

The portal rises to a monumental fifteen metres. It was originally built in Gothic style, but was transformed beyond recognition by Mateus Fernandes into a masterpiece of Manueline style (completed in 1509). It is completely decorated into a lacework of sumptuous and stylized Manueline motives : armillary, spheres, winged angels, ropes, circles, tree stumps, clover-shaped arches and florid projections. This homage of King Manuel I to his predecessor King Edward mentions his mottoLeauté faray tam yaserei (I will always be loyal). This motto is then repeated more than two hundred times in the arches, vaults and pillars of the chapels.

The Renaissance loggia, added at about 1533, was probably meant for musicians. It is ascribed to the architect João de Castilho.

Chapterhouse 

The Chapterhouse (Portuguese: Sala do Capitulo) reminds the visitors of the military reason for its foundation: two sentinels guard the tombs of two unknown soldiers killed in World War I.

This square room is especially notable for its star vault lacking a central support and spanning a space of 19 square meters. This was such a daring concept at the time that condemned prisoners were used to perform the task. It was completed after two failed attempts. When the last scaffolds were removed, it is said that Huguet spent the night under the vault in order to silence his critics.

The stained-glass Renaissance window in the east wall dates from 1508. It depicts scenes of the Passion and is attributed to the Portuguese painters Master João and Francisco Henriques.

Royal Cloister

The Royal Clositer (Portuguese: Claustro Real) is cloister was not part of the original project. It was built under the architect Fernão de Évora between 1448 and 1477. Its sober outward appearance is in stark contrast with the Flamboyant Gothic style of the church. The carved tracery decoration in Gothic style (including quatrefoils, fleurs-de-lis androsettes) by Huguet in the ambulatory forms a successful combination with the Manueline style in the arcade screens, added later by Mateus Fernandes. Two different patterns alternate, one with the cross of the Order of Christ, the other with armillaries.

The colonnettes, supporting these intricate arcade screens, are decorated with spiral motives, armillaries, lotus blossoms, briar branches, pearls and shells and exotic vegetation.

Lavabo

Situated in the northwestern corner of the Claustro Real, this work of Mateus Fernandes is of a beauty and harmony difficult to describe. It consists of a fountain and two smaller basins above. The whole is bathed in a golden glow seeping through the intricate tracery of the arches around it.

Cloister of King Afonso

This sober cloister next to the Claustro Real was built in conventional Gothic style with double pointed arches. It was constructed in the second half of the 15th century by the architect Fernão de Évora. It stands in contrast with the Manueline flamboyance of the somewhat larger Claustro Real. The keystones in the vault carry the coat-of-arms of D. Duarte I and Afonso V.

Palácio Nacional de Mafra

In 1715 was founded the Convent of Our Lady and St. Anthony of Mafra, who belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Arrábida. Originated in a community Hospice of the Holy Spirit. In 1730, the holy Basilica of Our Lady and St Anthony, near Mafra, was there transferred the aforesaid community. Between 1771 and 1791, for a brief of Clement XIV in July 4, 1770, at the request of the Marquis of Pombal, was occupied by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, the Franciscans of the Province of Arrábida left the Convent of Mafra in May 1771. In 1791, the Canons Regular of St. Augustine left the building Mafra.

Library_of_the_Convent_of_Mafra

The greatest treasure of Mafra is your library, with marble floors, bookshelves in Rococo style and a collection of over 36,000 books with leather bindings etched gold, thanks to the action of the Franciscan Order, including a second edition of The Lusiads Luís de Camões. It covers areas of study as diverse as medicine, pharmacy, history, geography and travel, philosophy and theology, canon law and civil law, mathematics, natural history, and literature sermonária. Situated at the bottom of the second floor is the star of the palace, rivaling in grandeur with the Library of the Abbey of Melk, Austria. Caetano constructed by Manuel de Sousa is 88 m long, 9.5 wide and 13 high. The floor is covered with magnificent marble pink, gray and white. The wooden shelves Rococo, located in two lateral rows, separated by a balcony containing thousands of leather-bound volumes, witnessing the extent of western knowledge of the XIVth century.

The Church of Santa Maria do Olival is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Tomar.

The church was built in the second half of the 12th century by the provincial master of the Order of the Knights Templar in Portugal, Gualdim Pais. It was used as a burial place for the Knights Templar of Tomar and, later, by the Knights of the Order of Christ, which succeeded the Templars in the 14th century. Gualdim Pais is buried in the church and his original tomb slab, dated from 1195 bearing a gothic inscription, is still preserved inside.

The current building is mostly the result of a reconstruction carried out in the 13th century in early Gothic style. The main façade has a beautiful rose window and a simple portal with several archivolts, and is flanked by a free-standing bell tower. The interior is very simple. The church has three naves covered by a wooden roof, and the columns of the pointed arches of the naves are devoid of capitals. The main chapel of the apse is covered by a Gothic ribbed vault. The tracery of the small rose window in the Eastern wall of the nave has the shape of apentagram.

In the 16th century the church was restored and several chapels were added to the Southern side. Notable are the polychromed statue of the Virgin Mary and Child (early 16th century) in the main altar and the funerary monument of Diogo Pinheiro the first Bishop of Funchal, a fine Renaissance work dated from 1525, located on the wall of the main chapel.

To understand Pena Palace and the beautiful Gardens sourrounding the Palace the tourist has to see the opera Parsifal…An opera with three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Perceval, the Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes’.

Parsifal is one of King Arthur’s legendary Knights of the Round Table, which can be found  in the Pena Palace Gardens.

Wagner’s spelling of Parsifal instead of the Parzival he had used up to 1877 is informed by an erroneous etymology of the name Percival deriving it from a supposedly Arabic origin,Fal Parsi meaning “pure fool”. Playing with words…

Remember the most important it is not inside the Pena Palace but in the Gardens and the Castle of The Moors.

All starts with the Warrior in the Garden, D.Fernando put the it exacly in the place where he love to seat and paint.

The Warrior (or Parsifal or problably D.Fernando of Saxe Coburg-Gotha)

High Cross, Cruz Alta (or Excalibur with the sword inside the rock)

Pena Palace, The Castle of the Holy Grail

Chalet Condessa d’Edla, Pena Palace Gardens or Klingsor’s magic garden

Duck House, Klingsor’s magic garden

The Castle of The Moors (or Avalon)

Lawrence’s Hotel (the oldest hotel on the Iberian Peninsula)

Monserrate Palace

Seteais Palace Hotel

Vila Palace

Quinta da Regaleira

All Photos in this Post and Page were Courtesy from Bruno Nabiça.

The Perfect Tourist  eMagazine

In 1160 the building of the castle was started. The land (like many more around Southern Europe) was given by the Portuguese king to the Order of the Knights Templar, in return for their support against the Moors.

The convent was added later, as an extension to the castle. The Templar Order was dissolved in 1312 but their property in Portugal was transferred to the Order of Christ which was created in 1319. This new military order would undertake an important role in Portuguese overseas expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Charola #1 Picture

Charola #2 Picture

Its octagonal church, called the Charola, is modeled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Eight tall, delicate pillars separate the central chapel from the outer aisle that encircles it. This unusual shape for a church was designed so that the knights could attend Mass on horseback – one of the many unique privileges this order enjoyed. Sharp-eyed visitors can still see the red cross of the Templars in the painted decoration of one of its pillars.

Open

Monday to Friday – 9 am – 6pm

Saturday and Sunday – 9.30am – 7.30pm

Ranked of Public Interest since 1971, the Castle is the subject of study by IPPAR – Portuguese Institute of Architectural Heritage and Archaeological, with a view to their recoverability and classification of areas surrounding the Ribeira de Quarteira as Protected Landscape Area. This study includes the identification of various nuclei of archaeological and ethnographic as well as the characterization of the existing fauna and flora.

Despite successive restorations its condition has degradeted and in our days only has a few sections of wall by the entrance tower and the main walls of the hermitage.

In the beginning of the 16th century with the transfer of the town inside the walls to the north it becomes clear  his state of semi-abandonment and later with the 1755 earthquake suffers partial collapse of walls and tower.

With a total urban population of around 180.000 inhabitants is the third-largest city in Portugal (after Lisbon and Porto), including the city and suburban parishes.

Its agglomerated urban area extends from the Cavado River to the Easte River. Braga is also the Minho´s greater metropolitan area  which includes a population of around 800.000 (2007 statistics), considered one of the fastest growing urban areas in the European Union.