Ordem do Templo - Knights Templar

  Tomar and Coimbra, Portugal
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Our next stop is Tomar, another UNESCO World Heritage site.

We locate an ultramodern underground car park and venture on foot into this medieval town. It's an attractive little place with narrow cobbled streets, lively squares and historic buildings.

1. Praça da Republica, with castle above

Though the town is interesting, the highlight is the magnificent Templar Castle and the Convent of the Knights of Christ. At the very beginning of the kingdom of Portugal, D. Teresa and later her son, Afonso Henriques, the first king, successively bestowed upon the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem vast tracts of land between the Mondego and Tagus rivers.

2. Convent of Christ

Legend has it that, on reaching this region, the Knights had the vision to choose a hill on which to establish a castle and the name that they were to give to it: Tomar. The year was 1160 and D. Gualdim Pais, the Provincial Master of the Order of the Temple, ordered the castle to be built and the region to be settled. This was the beginning of the town of Tomar.

The castle is remarkable for its Manueline decoration. Manueline is an incredibly complex architecture developed during the reign of Dom Manuel I and is uniquely Portuguese.

3. Temple altar

The "Charola", the octagonal alter, lavishly covered in gold leaf, is inspired by the Rotunda and Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and is absolutely stunning. It's a marvelous place and almost empty of visitors.  

After our extensive visit, we return to the parking lot where a local lady is selling fresh fruit.

4. Fresh fruit at Tomar

Some American girls are trying to divine some strange fruit the lady is offering. We translate that these are fresh figs. The girls are aghast, as the only figs they had ever seen had been dried ones in little round boxes.  

Continuing our drive through the attractive countryside, we arrive at the environs of Portugal's university city of Coimbra quite late. Here we are booked in Casa do Pombal (The Pigeon House). It's located up the hill by the university, and we have been given directions to cross over the River Mondego, continue along the main street past the market. Ahead of us looms a magnificent modern suspension bridge, which we traverse. On the other side we look for the main street and the market, but find neither. We seem to be in a modern section of town, and we soon realise that we are probably a bridge too soon. We struggle back through rush hour traffic and regain the main road and sure enough soon come to another bridge, this one much older. On the other side we can see the hills with the university perched atop. Now the directions are obvious, and once passing the market we ascend to the upper portion of town. Here the streets are extremely narrow and cobbled. Our pension is on a one-way street, the opposite way of course. We eventually wend our way through torturous lanes to the front door. We unload, and the owner directs to possible parking a few blocks from the building. Finding a spot, I manage to squeeze the car into the diminutive vacancy.

5. View from our BATHROOM window

Casa Pombal is very much a Pigeon House. We enter the main door and ascend two sets of narrow stairs to our room. Everything is tiny, but the bathroom has a fabulous view all over Coimbra. Why they didn't put the bedroom where the bathroom was and vice versa we could never ascertain, but talk about the wrong way round.  The owner, a Dutch lady recommends a typical spot to eat down in the city, and suggests we leave the car where it is. We can come back by taxi as the streets are very steep, and though its fun going down, it's a real slog coming back up.

Miraculously we find the restaurant, Flôr de Coimbra, on a second floor without much in the way of signage. We had been told it was a student restaurant, and indeed it was. No ambiance at all, but presumably good food. It's been around for a bit, since 1930 so the sign states, so it can't be that bad. OK, so the food was plentiful, perfect for starving students, but not particularly memorable. I try, Chanfana, marinated lamb in wine sauce, which I was told originated in Mozambique. Not bad, but I'm going back to fish for my next meal.

Afterwards we stroll through the lively city, but It is very late and we finally decide to take a taxi up the hill. This was the only taxi we take during the whole of our stay. In spite of the short distance and mighty ascent, we are only charged a couple of Euros.