Castle of Tomar

Castle of Tomar

The castle of the warrior monks

In the heart of Portugal, on a wooded hill above the town of Tomar, stands one of the most important castles the Knights Templar ever built. The Templars were monks who were also soldiers, and Tomar was the centre of their power in Portugal. From behind these walls they helped defend the young kingdom and were rewarded with vast lands. The castle is joined to a great cluster of cloisters and churches known as the Convent of Christ, and together they form one of Portugal's most treasured monuments, protected by UNESCO.

Founded by Gualdim Pais

The castle was founded in 1160 by Gualdim Pais, the master of the Templars in Portugal — the same knight who built castles at Almourol and Pombal. He chose this hilltop carefully, raising strong walls and towers to guard the town growing below.

At the heart of the castle the Templars built something remarkable: a round church called the Charola. Most churches are shaped like a long cross, but this one is a circle, built to remind the knights of holy round churches in faraway Jerusalem. Inside, it is richly painted and gilded, a glittering jewel-box of a chapel where the warrior monks once prayed before riding into battle.

When the Templars were destroyed

In the early 1300s the Knights Templar, who had grown enormously rich and powerful across Europe, made powerful enemies. The king of France and the Pope moved against them, and in 1312 the entire order was abolished. In many countries the Templars were arrested and their property seized.

In Portugal, however, the king did something clever. Rather than letting the Templars' wealth and knowledge be lost, he created a brand-new order, the Order of Christ, and gave it the Templars' lands — including Tomar. In this way the spirit of the Templars lived on in Portugal under a new name.

The order that funded exploration

This is where Tomar's story becomes truly important for the whole world. In the 1400s the head of the Order of Christ was Prince Henry the Navigator, the royal prince who sent Portuguese ships further and further down the unknown coast of Africa. The wealth of the order, based here at Tomar, helped pay for these daring voyages — the beginning of the great Age of Discovery that would soon carry Portuguese sailors to India, Brazil and around the world. Portuguese ships even sailed with the red cross of the order on their sails.

A blaze of carved stone

Because the Order of Christ grew so rich from exploration, it spent lavishly on Tomar. The most famous result is the great Manueline window of the convent — a riot of carved stone ropes, knots, coral, seaweed and ships' rigging, celebrating Portugal's life on the ocean. It is one of the most spectacular carvings in the country, and shows how a castle of warrior monks blossomed into a treasure-house of art.

Visiting today

Today visitors can explore the round Charola church, wander the peaceful cloisters added over the centuries, and marvel at the famous window. From the castle walls there are wide views over the red roofs of Tomar and the green hills beyond. Few castles tell so grand a story: from the rise and fall of the mysterious Templars to the bold voyages that opened up the world.