After leaving Evora and the Alentejo region going to Extremadura it's clear why there was early settlement on the plains and now in the small rolling hills. A very fertile region now devoted to grapes and other agriculture, and cows and sheep. It's interesting to see eucalyptus forests and an indigenous type of pine tree (maritime pine), cork and olive trees, and of course the plane trees that line many of the smaller roads.
The medieval village of Ourem is a walled citadel topped with a castle from the 12th century built on top of a Moorish settlement. Its strategic location very high up on a hillside made it a good location for staging the reconquest. It's quite a sleepy place that was heavily damaged in an earthquake in 1755.
Batalha is a UNESCO site, a masterpiece of Gothic style famous for its Manueline elements. Manueline is a variation of late Gothic style. Maritime motifs inspired by the Age of Discovery and elaborate patterned decoration are a hallmark of this style.
The monastery at Batalha celebrates the 1385 victory of Portugal over Castile that brought about 200 years of peace. The name Batalha means battle. The structure is pale limestone very elaborately decorated everywhere you look. The washing basin is a reminder of Moorish influence as Muslims wash before prayer. Statues of the apostles line both sides of the entrance, each one with a unique face. Construction on the monastery continued into the beginning of the 16th century.
Tomar was founded in 1157 and is dominated on the hillside by a castle and convent, the seat of Knights Templar. In the 15th century it was an important staging area for Henry the Navigator, a maritime expert involved with expansion in Africa.
The synagogue in Tomar was built between 1430 and 1460 by the thriving Jewish community. The community was present in the city from the 14th century when Jews came to work for the Knights Templar. The Jewish community got larger with Spanish Jews who were expelled in 1492. Then in 1496 King Manuel I expelled them all and the building was abandoned until 1516 after which it was used as a prison, a grain storage, and of course a Catholic chapel. You can see that there are no markings on the outside of the building to indicate what is inside. That is not a new phenomenon as Jewish houses of worship could not be taller, have more ornamentation, or be conspicuous in any way from the time of its establishment. You can see how simple a structure it is.
A Polish Jewish engineer working in Tomar in the 1920s purchased the building, restored it then donated it in 1930 to the state with the stipulation that it be maintained as is. As a result he and his family were granted citizenship which saved them from the Holocaust. The synagogue is one of two existing preserved Medieval synagogues in Portugal. Four exist in Spain. These stones are grave markers that have been preserved.
In a more recent excavation the mikveh (in the basement), the ritual bath was discovered and unearthed. It can be seen next door to the synagogue.
The Nabao River flows through Tomar, and even generates some hydroelectric power. The bridge separates the older town from the newer town. It reminds me of Ile Sur le Sorgue in France, a town also on both sides of a flowing river.
One of the more unusual museums, the Museum of Fosforos is a collection of matches, the largest in Europe. Over 43,000 matchboxes from 104 countries collected by Aquiles de Mota Lima, a world traveler. He was heading to London for Elizabeth II coronation when he received a request for a commemorative matchbook. That started a lifetime obsession.
The Templar castle looms over the town of Tomar with the adjacent convent in Manueline style. Founded in 1160 the Knights Templar established the castle on the site of a Moorish settlement. The rounded hill you see is to deflect bombardment though inside it's rather peaceful right now. The outside of the convent can be seen attached to the castle. Below is a detail of what you see surrounding the door. More on the convent below.
Here is where the aqueduct of Tomar (from the last posting) ends up, at the Convent. Under Henry the Navigator, the cloisters were developed adjacent to the castle from 1418 with the most completed in the mid 16th century.
Beautiful tile work and manueline details throughout the fairly larger cloister.
This window shows the most detailed and exquisite Manueline carving on the west exterior window of the chapel.
Entering the chapel, on one side you have the actual lecturn and on the opposite wall you have the trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye) painted lecturn. The freestanding altar in the center of the room is modeled after the one in the Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem.
Conimbriga is the largest excavated Roman site in Portugal. The Roman road that you see in the first picture should orient you that this site was on the road between Lisbon and Braga (in the upper north east on the Spanish border). There is evidence of habitation as early as the 2nd century BCE but even before that there was a Celtic settlement here. The middle picture shows the commercial area and the picture on the right is of one of the substantial villas.
Amazingly preserved and restored mosaic floors including the one on the lower right with the swastika symbol, a symbol of good luck. Some appear clockwise and some counterclockwise.
Under the Roman Emperor Augustus from about 25 BCE Conimbriga became a substantial city with fortified walls, baths, an amphitheater, palestra (stadium), and swimming pool. You can see where the original stone work is on the palestra and pool, with everything above that a restoration.
The large forum is probably the best indicator of how important this site was. The model helps you understand what you are looking at, column bases, remnants of columns, and a reconstruction of the forum gathering place in front of the temple. The small covered area shows the original floor of the forum, the rest is a reconstruction.
Was not sure if the brick columns were added in reconstruction or if they were actual brick columns from Roman times and this grouping confirmed they were an ancient building structure though some may have been added. In the middle is the entrance arch to the amphitheater, not much else remains. The picture on the right is excavated prehistoric dwellings found during excavations of the forum.
The House of the Fountains dating from the early 2nd century is the best preserved villa on the site. For .50 you can have the water flow through the fountains as in days of old. Irises just starting to bloom, must beautiful in full bloom.
The adjacent museum has many displays of what archaeologists found on the site. These are pieces of sculpture representing Augustus. The body (with foot attached) would have been generic, and if the particular emperor was coming to town his bust head would be attached and then removed after his departure.
Coimbra is the birthplace of 6 Portuguese kings and home to Portugal's oldest university. It has the feel of a university town and has been compared to Oxford for its prestige. It is at the top of the hill, and Coimbra is not for the faint hearted driver or walker. It's slow going up and down. Coimbra was first Roman (more about that a little later), Moorish until 878 CE and eventually the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques moved the capital here, an honor it retained until 1256.
The botanical garden is adjacent to the university and was developed in 1772 when the Marques de Pombal (an enlightenment figure) introduced the study of natural history to the university. The garden is 50 acres devoted to 1200 plants, many rare and exotic.
You can see another aqueduct on the border between the garden and the university, this one dates from 1570.
In 1290 King Dinis founded a university in Lisbon, one of the world's oldest and most illustrious. In 1537 it was transferred to Coimbra and located in King Afonso's palace. Study was mostly religious, medicine, and law until the Marques de Pombal broadened the curriculum and as time went on the university grew to occupy the entire top of the hill. The students and professors still wear robes as you can see, they are liberally minded but tradition bound, they look like they stepped out of Hogwarts. Salazar who was a professor of political economics and dictator of Portugal from 1920-1974 had the building you see in the foreground of the model removed so he could see the river beyond. The statue is of Jaoa III who was father of the inquisition.
Inside what was the palace throne room (Ceiling detail in the middle) is used for students to defend their dissertation for graduation. At the top of the building you can see the river Modego, the only one of the three major rivers that is entirely inside Portugal. The Tagus and Douro start in Spain and flow to the Atlantic.
The ceiling in the room behind the "throne " room is decorated with symbols for the academic schools and portraits of the Jesuits who managed the school til they were thrown out in 1759 by the Marques do Pombal who also abolished slavery, and served as ambassador to Great Britain. The other pictures are of the royal chapel which the kings continued using even after the capital was moved back to Lisbon. Notice the front door in Manueline style with the columns that look like twisted ropes, a nod to the maritime heritage of Portugal. The pipe organ has Chinese style paintings along the bottom, a fascination with exotic places and a connection to Macau.
The chapel was filled top to bottom with azulejo tiles and more twisted columns. The Biblioteca Joanina is named for its benefactor Jaoa V, built in the 18th century contains 53,000 volumes including a Gutenberg bible and an Abravanel bible. Students can request a book from the library, and it's digitized before they can use it. There are supposedly bats who live in the library as they eat insects that might damage books though we didn't see them as it was daytime.
Google directions wanted us to come down these almost vertical steps but we declined and took the long way down. We next visited the National Museum of Machado de Castro next door to the university, a most interesting museum.
More Roman ruins. Below the museum are tunnels created by arches. The Romans developed Coimbra though because of the steep hill had to level out a place for their forum and did so by using the structural strength of arches. This is also how the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was built. The picture in the center is a mile marker from the road between Conimbriga and Coimbra.
In the 1400s repairs were made as the flat space above was sinking. You can see how an entrance was left unfinished and another restored. The bust portrait heads are from the 1st century CE and are Livia, Augustina, and Trajan. The tombstones were brought here from Conimbriga.
The museum contained art from the Middle Ages through the 18th century and even some late 19th century photographs of Morocco. These were a few of my favorites with the animation of the angels a real surprise since they came from the 14th century at a time Portugal was very much still in the Gothic style.
This three sided column from the 12th century show a mermaid, birds, and masks. The mermaid seduces into sin while the birds that drink from the sacred vessel welcome the divine. It's the eternal struggle between good and evil.
The apostles in terracotta (1530) with Judas in the front (middle picture), John the Baptist on the upper right (in women's clothing?!), St. Peter lower middle, Aristotle on the left and a reliquary with a bone in the little window from 18th century.
Such expressive faces and variety in the collection, it was hard to know what we might see around the next corner.
A museum built over ancient ruins makes the ancient world come alive. This slice of excavation goes all the way down to the time of Augustus, 1st century CE.
An entire chapel removed from it's original site and reinstalled in the museum. It was controversial probably partly because it includes some grave markers though the structure was collapsing.
A university town but one filled with so much history everywhere you turn.
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