Two of Portugal’s three great abbeys (the third is Jeronimos, in Lisbon’s Belem neighborhood) are within a dozen miles of each other, north of the walled town of Obidos.
Mosteiro de Santa Maria dominates the small town of Alcobaca, its façade forming an entire side of the elongated main square. The artistry of its interior is every bit as impressive as the size of its exterior. Rows of soaring pillars lead to the altar, and to one of Portugal’s most repeated love stories. The two intricately carved marble tombs at either side of the altar belong to King Pedro and Queen Inez.
Alcobaca’s Love Story
Because the king feared the power of her Spanish family over the throne of Portugal, he forbade his son Don Pedro to marry Inez de Castro. So the prince wed his true love in secret. The king found out, and had Inez murdered. Pedro eventually ascended the throne, had Inez exhumed, crowned, and buried at Alcobaca in a tomb he designed for her. He also designed his own, facing it so their first sight as they rose on Resurrection Day would be of each other.
Behind the tombs is a door carved in Portugal’s unique Manueline style. The church itself is free, but it’s well worth paying admission to see the adjoining cloister and monastic building. In the cloister delicately carved columns surround a garden with a stone lavabo – a sort of gazebo with a fountain in it -- in one corner. At the far end, the kitchen has an ox-roasting pit and a river flowing through it to provide the monks with fresh fish.
Portugal’s Battle Abbey
Admire the facade from a cafe table across the square before continuing north to Batalha, which you will see ahead of you below a long hill. This one, built in thanksgiving for the victory that freed Portugal, represents the apogee of Manueline stone carving, some of it so lacy that it's hard to believe it's stone.
Immediately to the right as you enter is the Capela do Fundador, with the tombs of King Joao and Queen Phillipa surrounded by those of their sons, including Prince Henry the Navigator. The chapel is crowned by a vaulted dome with stone snowflake medallions. The story of King Joao and his English wife, Philipa of Lancaster, is one of an enduring marriage of two people dedicated to their country and to their family. You will meet them and their extraordinary high-achiever sons repeatedly as you travel throughout Portugal.
Adjoining the nave on the opposite side is another exquisite cloister, with Manueline pillars joined by lace-like stone filigree. In the Chapter House, Portugal's Unknown Soldier rests under an unsupported dome whose design was so cutting-edge that no one would enter until its architect slept a night under it to prove it safe.
Unfinished Chapels
Through a second cloister is a door leading outside; to your right is the abbey's most unique feature of all, the unfinished chapels. While this great chapel was in progress, the current king abandoned work here to begin his own monastery at Belem. All the carving is complete and only the final arches and dome are missing, so you can imagine what this soaring chapel would have looked like. A school of stonecarving works outside, so you can see the stone decorations in progress. Behind the abbey is a good regional tourist office.
