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| 1818 Tomar - The castle of the Knights Templar |
Tomar lies in the most fertile region of Portugal and is one of country's historical jewels. Under the modern city lies the Roman city of Sellium. After the conquest of the region from the Moors in the Portuguese Reconquista, the land was granted in 1159 as a fief to the Order of the Knights Templar. Its Grand Master in Portugal, and Tomar's somewhat mythical founder, Gualdim Pais, laid in 1160 the first stone of the Castle and Monastery that would become the headquarters of the Order in Portugal. The Templars ruled from Tomar a vast region of central Portugal which they pledged to defend from Moorish attacks and raids.
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| 1819 Tomar - Convent of Christ The Chapter House Window |
After the Order was dissolved in the 14th century, its Portuguese branch was turned into the Knights of the Order of Christ, which supported Portugal's maritime discoveries of the 15th century. Henry the Navigator was the Governor of the Order, and it is believed that he used the resources and knowledge of the Order to succeed in his enterprises in Africa and in the Atlantic. The cross of the Order of Christ that was painted in the sails of the caravels that crossed the seas, and the Catholic missions in the new lands were under the authority of the Tomar clerics until 1514.
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| 1820 Tomar - Detail of the round church, view from the nave |
In the reign of Manuel I of Portugal the convent took its final form within the Manueline renaissance style. With the growing importance of the town as master of Portugal's overseas empire, the leadership of the Order was granted to the King by the Pope. King John III demilitarised the order, turning it into a more religious order with a rule based on that of Bernard of Clairvaux. The Convent of Tomar, originally conceived as a symbolic monument of the Reconquest, became, from the Manueline period, an inverse symbol: that of the opening of Portugal to external civilizations.
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