Castles of the Knights Templar in Portugal’s History

This is the famous window in the Manueline style, the reproduction of which can be found in every architectural book devoted to the Portuguese late Gothic. This is the main attraction of Tomar. People say that in the 19th century the Brits suggested writing off the whole debt of Portugal to Great Britain in exchange for this window. The window is still here, which means that the Portuguese rejected the proposal. You might ask, what is this window so famous for, what is so special about it, and why did England long to get it?

Upon arrival at the Lisbon airport on January 5th, we stayed there only long enough to claim our baggage; a very eventful 10-day car trip around Portugal’s cities awaited us. Our GPS navigator calculated a course and we moved to a little-known Portuguese village, Alvega. Ninety minutes later, our rented Citroen was already parked at the Manor House Solar de Alvega.

That ancient house was chosen to be the starting point for our fascinating acquaintance with Portuguese history. The best places to visit in Portugal we had already identified at home, in advance. Judge for yourself. Within a radius of a hundred kilometers around Alvega, there were such historic Portuguese cities as:

Alcobaca with the gravestone of the most popular Portuguese Queen, Ines de Castro;
Tomar which has been the capital of the Portuguese Knights Templar since the 12th century;
the Almourol Castle, the Templars’ outpost on the Tejo River;
Coimbra, one of the first Portuguese capitals;
and the unique Portuguese village of Monsanto which would surprise us a bit later.

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