Convento de Cristo, Tomar, Portugal

The first part of the post on Convent of Christ, Tomar I described partly what to see in interiors of this monastery. This post continues with some more details on the cloisters in Convento de Cristo, Tomar. There are a total of 8 cloisters in Convento de Cristo. I roamed through several of them. The winding staircases took us to different cloisters all varying in sizes and shapes.

The Hostelry cloister was designed to house travelers temporarily. They were pilgrims, clergymen, nobles. Visitors belonging to higher strata of society were lodged in upper floor. Servant’s quarter was on ground floor.

Cloister of John III is magnificent, two-storey cloister. It connects the dormitory of the monks to the church. The storeys are connected to each other by four elegant helicoidal stairways, located at each corner of the cloisters.

Convento de Cristo Tomar Cloister 1Convento de Cristo Tomar Cloister 2

In the cloister of cemetery is the tomb of Diogo da Gama, brother of navigator Vasco da Gama.

The dormitory where the monks lived and Dinning room of Knights Templars with marble table in Convento de Cristo Tomar – Portugal.

Convento de Cristo Tomar 3

UNESCO says…
Tomar was declared a World Heritage Site because:
“Originally designed as a monument symbolizing the Reconquest, the Convent of the Knights Templar of Tomar (transferred in 1344 to the Knights of the Order of Christ) came to symbolize just the opposite during the Manueline period – the opening up of Portugal to other civilizations.”

If you are anywhere near it would be worthwhile to spend a couple of hours touring this Convento de Cristo Tomar. We are glad we included this in our itinerary. The next destination was Coimbra.

Road to Coimbra from Tomar.

Road to Coimbra from TomarTex’s Good Fences

Skywatch Friday

King John’s Library (Bibiloteca Joanina), Coimbra
Convent of Christ, Tomar, Portugal

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