Portugal’s Knights Templar Trail
Castles Built by the Mystical Order of Crusaders
When the Knights Templar were disbanded by the Pope, Portugal's king formed the new Order of Christ, and invited them to join. Several castles and sites tell their story
When the powerful and wealthy Knights Templar, a Medieval order brought to light in Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, were disbanded by Pope Clement V in 1307, they either disappeared or went underground in small bands. But in Portugal, their history was a bit different.
While other kings quickly seized the Templar castles and lands – often imprisoning or killing the knights themselves, King Dinis of Portugal did not. Instead, he petitioned the Pope to found a new order of religious knights, the Order of Christ. The Pope agreed. Dinis quietly spread the word that all former Templars were welcome, and restored the castles to the new templars-in-disguise. Several of these castles still stand, and even without their mysterious history, are among Portugal’s best places to visit.
Before their abolishment, the Templar headquarters was at Tomar, where their magnificent castle complex survives intact as one of Portugal’s 13 World Heritage Sites. The Convento de Cristo began in 1160 under Grand Master Gualdim Pais. Its church, the octagonal Charola, is modeled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Eight graceful pillars separate the central chapel from an ambulatory, an outer aisle that encircles it. Here the warrior knights could attend mass on horseback – one of the many privileges this order enjoyed.
When Prince Henry the Navigator became Grand Master of the Order of Christ, he returned the headquarters to Tomar, and emphasized the monastic life of the order by building the two 15th-century Gothic cloisters.
Igreja de Santa Maria dos Olivais, also in Tomar, was built in the mid-1300s as a pantheon for Grand Masters, but most of the tombs were destroyed in 16th-century rebuilding. Only those of Gualdim Pais and Gil Martins, first Master of the Order of Christ, survive.
Gualdim Pais was responsible for construction of a number of Templar castles that stand today, including the unusual five-sided castle at Domes, northeast of Tomar, and the well-preserved Pombal Castle, to the northeast. Built sometime between 1160 and 1171, Pombal Castle, like the others, passed from Templars to the Order of Christ. The walls are intact, as are two deep wells in its courtyard, and the central tower, with stairs to the top for sweeping views. The setting is formidable, almost completely covering the top of a steep rocky crag.
The best setting belongs to Almourol Castle, completed in 1171. It sits aloof at the crest of a rocky island in the Taugus River. Its walls and towers are well preserved, and visitors can climb the keep for dizzying views into the other towers. Access the island by a tiny boat just opposite, or enjoy the drama of the river approach on a boat from Vila Nova da Baranquinha, downstream.
King Dinis knew that it would be too obvious if the Order of Christ continued to use Tomar as headquarters, so he gave them the fortress at Castro Marim, in the eastern Algarve at the Spanish border. Today the knights' partially restored Castelo is surrounded by larger 17th-century ramparts. Inside is Igreja de Santiago, where Prince Henry the Navigator worshiped when he was in residence.
Other Templar castles dot the landscape, such as one at Mogadouro in the northwest, and finding them makes a fascinating quest for travelers. Two other sites, although not castles, belong on any Templar trail: Prince Henry’s School of Navigation on the windswept point at Sagres, and his tomb, beside that of his parents in the Founders’ Chapel at the monastery of Batalha, north of Lisbon.
