To see a google map showing Tomar in the centre click here

Simply click on the images to enlarge them   Tomar is an hours drive NE of Lisbon and 34 kilometers east of Fatima

By 1249 the re-conquest of all of Portugal had taken place, the Moor’s last stronghold at Silves in the Algarve had finally fallen to the Crusaders. In Spain they had been driven down to the south but still remained in control of Andalucia with centres at Seville and Granada.

The Knights Templar had been almost entirely responsible for this victory over the Moors and reaped enormous rewards for their services. They were given vast areas of land throughout the Iberian Peninsula and built castles or added to castles that they had captured from the Moors. This network of castles, each one massive in construction and always in a position on top of a mountain or high hill overlooking vast areas of surrounding countryside, made it easy for them to have absolute control over the land that they had taken from the Moors.

However by the end of the 13th century most of the European monarchs and particularly the church began to realise that the knights had become a significant and powerful political challenge to their authority.

In September of 1307 secret orders were sent by the French King to his representatives throughout France to arrest the Knights on a specific day. On this day, Friday 13th October 1307, they were all arrested, tortured and those who refused to confess to trumped up charges of a variety of crimes such as heresy, homosexuality, spitting on a cross in rights of initiation and anything else that their inquisitors could think of, were burnt to death. Those who confessed were spared but lived with the dreadful scars of the red hot poker and thumb screws. Many knights in France who survived this terrible purge had their estates confiscated. There was also a formal Papal suppression of the Order in 1314, this lead to their persecution in Spain. As a result knights from both countries fled to Portugal where they were welcomed by the Portuguese King, Dom Dinis. Dom Dinis reconstituted their order in 1320 under a new name ‘The Order of Christ’.

The Convent of Christ and The Castle of the Templars at Tomar, well fortified on a hill overlooking the town had been built both as a religious and military centre in 1162 as the headquarters of the Knights Templar in Portugal. King Dom Dinis gave this and all the other Templar properties in Portugal to the new order and the Kings of Portugal became the Grand Masters of the ‘The Order of Christ’.

Now that the Moors had been defeated, those that were left were mainly farmers who integrated into the Portuguese community. The new order became involved in extending Portugal’s empire overseas and were given spiritual jurisdiction over all their conquests. In addition, enormous wealth from this new Portuguese empire began to flow back into Portugal and by the early 16th century the Convent and Castle had become a large monastic community involving dormitories, enormous kitchens and a total of seven cloisters. The buildings now a mixture of Romanesque, Manueline and Renaissance architecture.

The jewel in the crown however is the 12th century Charola, also known as The Rotunda. This has both the appearance and ambience more of an occult temple than a Christian church. It is sixteen sided with an altar in the centre and is surrounded by a two story octagon building built on the style of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which was built by the Templars. There are deep alcoves set into the inside of the walls decorated with sixteenth-century paintings. It has been said that the Templars attended their church services in the Charola whilst still riding their horses. There is a powerful and strange atmosphere here, the person that I was with when I visited Tomar in February 2002 became dizzy and felt extremely unwell whilst we were in the Charola and did not recover until she had spent some time sitting outside.

These photographs of the castle will I hope will convey something of the beauty of this place. The town of Tomar is also an attractive place with many 15th and 16th century buildings. There is one of only two pre inquisition synagogues to survive in Portugal. There are many inexpensive hotels and restaurants here; I spent a total of two days exploring the town and castle, it would be a pity to spend less.