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About Tomar in the centre of Portugal
Situated almost in the geographic centre of Portugal the city was founded by the Knights of the Templar in 1160. A settlement grew up around their castle and gradually stretched down to the banks of the river Nabão. Prince Henry the Navigator, who became the administrator after the extinct Templars became the order of Christ in 1319, was largely responsible for the symmetrical construction of the town as it was then. The first half of the 16th century was the boom period when the kings Manuel I and John III were the patrons of “Manueline” art and architecture, a flamboyant Gothic style. Philip II of Spain was proclaimed Philip I of Portugal at the Cortes held in Tomar and vowed to respect the privileges of the Portuguese in his bid for Iberian unity at the end of the 16th Century. In the 18th century the region was successful on some manufacturing areas such as a water powered cotton mill and a paper mill.
The most striking of all the interesting monuments to be seen in Tomar is the Convent of Christ, which constitutes a historical and artistic unit sheltering all the architectural styles of Portugal from the 12th to the 18th Centuries, with particular emphasis on the late gothic and that uniquely exuberant decorative style called the Manueline. The convent is a must on any itinerary, especially the first oratory of the Knights Templar, the Charola or sixteen sided rotunda built on an octagonal plan, the thrust supported on the exterior by large buttresses. On the arches and gothic corbels inside there are polychrome wooden statuettes of the prophets and painted panels representing scenes from the life of Christ. Radiating out from the charola is the whole architectural ensemble with eight cloisters, a two storey 16th century Manueline church, the choir and the sacristy with quite unique features both inside and out. Other points of interest are the portal and the famous Chapter House window described by Haupt as ‘the most stupendous architectural creation of any era’. The cloister of John III, also known as the cloister of the Philips, is another jewel, with two vaulted galleries and a terrace, begun by João de Castilho in the renaissance style in 1533. It was continued by Diogo de Torralva in a return to Classicism and only completed, with a mannerist fountain, by Pedro Fernandes de Torres in the reign of Philip II. All the remaining cloisters were designed for the needs of the convent and are quite unique. A series of cisterns in the main cloisters guaranteed the water the convent needed. At the end of the 16th century Pegões Aquaduct was built to channel water from springs in the northeast to increase  thesupply of water to the convent where it was stored in a tank in the garden.
The importance of the convent lies in the great diversity of it’s architectural solutions that were a challenge to the imagination of design and the ability of construction.
The convent is built looking out over the city that has a number of other monuments of interest. The church of Santa Maria do Olival, said to have been built on the site of a 7th century Benedictine monastery, dates back to the first phase of 13th century Gothic and has a detached square tower facing the façade. The church has three naves and the gabled portico with triple archivolts is supported by slender, plain columns, surmounted by a sign of Solomon, framed by a five lobed flower, surrounded by a circle. To complete the ensemble, twelve three-lobed leaves form a rose window. This church was originally the pantheon of the Order of the Knights Templar and was used as Tomar parish church until the 19th century.
The Manueline parish church of S. João Baptista built in 1510 has two lovely entrance doorways and a three-storey bell tower with spire on the north corner of the façade. The building has three naves and a superb tracery pulpit as well as six, 16th century panels attributed to the painter Gregório Lopes.
The church of Santa Iria was built on the site where, according to tradition, there was a 7th century convent where the patron saint of the city, Santa Iria, was martyred in the year 653. Renaissance in style, the design has been attributed to João de Castilho, which is confirmed by the interior where there is a Crucifixion from the Coimbra school of João de Rouen in the Valles chapel. The Church of Misericórdia has a single nave with walls in wood and chequered blue and white tiles, the same as in the baroque church of the old Convento de S. Francisco that also has six chapels on each side.
The small chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade stands on a hill overlooking the town with a flight of 292 steps leading up to it. The chapel of S. Gregório is at the beginning of the flight of steps leading to the chapel of S. Lourenço, a small rectangular building, with a porch and Manueline portal. One of the most singular churches is the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, currently undergoing restoration, which evokes Italian classicism and is a fine example of the Portuguese renaissance style.
The streets of Tomar are a delight with old houses and windows surrounded by stonework, a Manueline window here and a series of verandas there. In the centre of the town is the former Synagogue with slender pillars supporting whitewashed, groined vaulting. This seems to have been the centre of Jewish life in the town.
The city with its bridges, cisterns and wells and the murmur of the River Nabão, its banks edged by greenery, governed by weirs and wheels that were used in times gone by to water vegetable plots and orchards provide visible examples of the Muslim tradition of hydraulic engineering. In short, Tomar is different in combining delightful scenery and uniquely interesting art and architecture.
The Festival of the “Tabuleiros”
The most important festival in Tomar is the Festa dos Tabuleiros or the Festa do Espírito Santo (the Holy Ghost) that takes place every four years in May and is announced by the Crowns Procession that goes through the town on Easter Sunday. Pipes, drums, tambourines and bands announce the banner of the Holy Ghost and the presentation of three silver crowns, carried by those who symbolically assume responsibility for the organisation of the festival.
 The high point of the main festival is the procession of "trays" which the girls, each accompanied by a young man, carry on their heads. The girls are dressed in white with a coloured belt and sash, and have a rolled pad on their heads to help take the weight of the high, decorated "tray". The young men wear black trousers, a white shirt, a black cummerbund, with a tasselled cap on the shoulder or a brimmed hat. Each "tray" is the height of the girl carrying it and is made up of thirty rolls of bread, each weighing 500 gr., set on five or six rows of canes. The base is a basket, covered by a white cloth with lace edging, in which the canes are fixed. Alternating with the bread are rows of paper flowers and sheaves of wheat finished off by a large painted tin crown topped by a dove or the Cross of Christ.
These festivities are based on the cult of the Holy Ghost that began in Portugal during the reign of King Diniz (1279-1325) and his wife Queen Isabel. The worship of the Holy Ghost is also strong on the island of Terceira in the Azores where special celebrations dating back hundreds of years take place at the small, decorated chapels or impérios in each town. Every year an “emperor" is selected and crowned, usually a boy, a symbol of innocence associated with peace by the dove decorations symbolising the Holy Ghost. The "emperor" traditionally receives gifts to be distributed to the poor. Extensive Portuguese emigration over the years has taken many of these old traditions overseas particularly to the United States of America where Azorean communities have settled.
Outings
Tomar is an attractive town and the surrounding countryside is also worth a visit.. Not far from the town perimeter is PEGÕES AQUEDUCT, built at the time of Kings Philip I and II, through which water still flows to the Convent of Christ. The arches of the aqueduct, an attractive example of late 16th, early 17th century secular architecture were built to overcome the uneven height of the ground and create level points to provide the flow of water that was stored in tanks.
Another point of interest is the old paper-producing factory, FABRICA DO PRADO, by the stone weir, built to direct the flow of the River Nabão to atextile factory, Fábrica da Fiacção, built in the reign of José I (1750-77), whose first Minister, the Marquis de Pombal, was keen to encourage industry. Still going in the direction of Prado, note the QUINTA DA GRANJA, with a delightful covered veranda facing east, a country residence for monks founded by the Order of Christ.
A few kilometres north, is CASTELO DE BODE, a sheet of water created by the dam of the same name. The River Zêzere was blocked and the level of the water flowed over the valleys and slopes, leaving islands that look like floating platforms, one of which, Ilha do Lombo, boasts a small hotel or estalagem. The steep banks rising from the water are covered with pine and eucalyptus and the surrounding silence and the luminous blue of the water make this one of those places that perfectly reflects the natural beauty of the region.
Further north is the neighbouring district of Ferreira do Zêzere, where in the town of DORNES, a place of Marian pilgrimage, the church shelters an image of Nossa Senhora das Dores. The waters of the dam have risen to make the site into a picturesque peninsula, with a Templar watchtower standing sentinel by the church.
 Tomar is a centre for good food, wine and local sweet dishes. The early part of the year sees LAMPREY AND KID on the menu. In the spring, at the end of February and the beginning of March, restaurants compete with each other for the best lamprey, while kid appears about Easter time and is cooked according to local recipes, usually roasted with small potatoes sprinkled with almonds and spring greens. I have to say that this is my favourite dish and to accompany it I'd recommend a local red wine, Adega Cooperativa de Tomar (Reserva Capítulo). As dessert, a ”slice” of Tomar, a sweet made with egg yolks, like a yellow sponge cake soaked in sugar syrup. Before all of this perhaps a light broth, but afterwards absolutely nothing!
There are a number of excellent restaurants but I'll mention only two, Xico Elias, which serves unique dishes invented by D. Maria do Céu; again I'd highlight the D. Prior cabbage and the crème brûlée.
An alternative is Lúria, which excels at lamprey, roast kid, shad, scrambled egg with mushrooms. Both restaurants are on the outskirts of the town. For some years now, between the second and third Saturday in May, Tomar has held a Soup Conference, where various kinds of soup hold pride of place on menus.
Visiting Tomar is always a pleasure and with excellent soups on excellent menus with excellent wine there is even more reason for taking the trip as can be seen by the growing number of visitors – why don't you join them?
Based on an article by Luís Maria Graça a doctor in Portuguese culture and a professor at the Catholic University in Lisbon.
Photography by Jorge Barros
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