Take a trip back in time and learn about the history of the Knights Templar

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About

This will be a journey through time, where you can learn a little more about the history of the Knights Templar, men who were simultaneously Knights, Warriors and Monks.

​The Templars played an important role in all of Portugal's great eras and battles, from the founding of the country with D. Afonso Henriques to the Discoveries. The headquarters of the Templars and, later, of the “Order of Christ” settled in Tomar, making this the Templar capital of Portugal and Spain and one of the most important in the medieval world.

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The first stop will be at Almourol Castle, with characteristics of the Templar fortifications, completed in 1171, and located on a small island surrounded by the calm waters of the Tagus River.

Afterwards, we will visit Tomar, a Templar city, where Gualdim Pais, the Templar Grand Master, founded the Convent of Christ in 1162, which still preserves memories of the knight-monks. This building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Also  in this city we have the Church of Santa Maria dos Olivais, built in the 12th century, it was the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the country, having served as a pantheon of the masters of the Order, and the church of São João Batista , both classified as a National Monument in 1910.

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The Synagogue of Tomar built between 1430 and 1460, with a depth of 9.50 meters and a width of 8.25, owes its existence to Infante D. Henrique, as governor of the Order of Christ in the 15th century, he was the great promoter of the settlement of the Jews in Tomar, giving them a street to build their neighborhood and have their synagogue there.​

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The Castle of Tomar and Convent of Christ, seat of the religious and military orders of the Temple and of Christ. By the hand of the Templar Master D. Gualdim Pais, he founded, in 1160, the castle and village of Tomar, classified as a World Heritage Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 1983.

The conventual fence is a vast rural area known, since the beginning of the Templar settlement of the region, as the Lugar dos Sete Montes. In 1619 architecture appears over the valley of Pegões and in the conventual landscape a grandiose work of hydraulic engineering that covers an extension of about 6 kilometers, having a total of 180 arches for the aerial passages of the conduit. The Pegões aqueduct, made up of 58 round arches, in the deepest part of the valley, rests on 16 broken arches, in turn built on imposing masonry massifs.

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