click on the pictures to make them larger except the ones of Pedro & Inés and King Afonso IV  

If you would like to see a google map of this area click here

Alcobaça was built in 1153 by the Portuguese King Dom Henrique, six years earlier he had made a promise that he would donate land and build a monastery for the Cistercian order of monks if he succeeded in taking Santarém from the Moors. This wasn’t entirely an unselfish move, St Bernard the leader of the Cistercians had become very powerful and influential and Dom Henrique needed the recognition of the Pope. Also having defeated the Moors there were large tracts of land that had become de-populated and fertile land that needed to be managed. The Cistercians had a reputation for hard work and efficient land management.

Kings Sancho I and Afonso II built the church, King Dinis built the cloister. King Pedro I donated generously to the monastery because the monks took his side in his dispute with his father Alfonso IV, over his love for Inês de Castro.

The abbey is almost identical to the Cistercian abbey of Citeaux in France, it is the largest church in Portugal. Inside the breathtakingly high Gothic aisles, beautiful in their simplicity have been untouched, but the facade has been altered in the 17th & 18th centuries to a Baroque style which whilst different to the original has a very Portuguese flavour.

In the pictures above you will see the kitchen with its enormous chimney supported by eight iron columns and a stream that runs down one side of the room used both as a source of water and fresh fish! Whilst it is true that the monks fed themselves extremely well on wonderful food and wine they were not greatly overweight as the entrance to the refectory involved each monk having to pass through a narrow doorway, any who could not fit through quite simply did not eat until he could fit through. In a photograph to the left you will see that I would have only just qualified to have lunch!

It was in Alcobaça that the tragic love story of Pedro and Inês ended. Pedro,  son and heir of King Afonso IV (1291 - 1357) carried out his father's wishes and married Princess Constanza of Navarre. When Constanza died, he went to live in Coimbra with the woman that he loved, Inês de Castro, a Spanish aristocrat. His father strongly disapproved because he believed that her family was a potential threat to the Portuguese throne, and so had her murdered in Coimbra's Quinta das Lágrimas.  When the Afonso died, Pedro succeeded to the throne and took revenge on the two men who had killed Inês by having their hearts torn out. Pedro had married Inês secretly in Bragança, he now had her corpse exhumed and crowned. The court was forced to acknowledge her as queen by kneeling before her on the throne and kissing her decomposed hand. Pedro and  Inês  are buried here in the Abbey, where, at Pedro's wish, they were placed foot to foot so that when they arose on the Day of Judgement, the two lovers would immediately see each other. Both tombs carry the inscription "Até ao fim do mundo", "until the end of the world."  This story is without doubt Portugal's most romantic love story and has inspired much poetry and literature.

Alcobaça is 120 kilometers north of Lisbon and 10 kilometers east of Nazaré - By car it takes about an hour to get there from Lisbon.