Motorhomers on Tour : Our pilgrimage to Fatima and Tomar - the former HQ of the Knights Templar

Leaving Obidos the rain started and was stop/start all the way to Fatima. Fatima is the fountainhead of religious devotion in Portugal and one of the Catholic Church’s most popular shrines. We are not religious people and weren’t planning on coming here, but as the road we were travelling on went pretty much passed it, we were interested to see the basilica.

The place has grown up over the years, built entirely on its faith, and millions descend on the place for an annual pilgrimage for couple of days in May and October, most making the journey on foot. The basilica is massive and has a gigantic esplanade – twice the size of St Peter’s in Rome.

A mass was taking place in the tiny chapel outside and everyone was crowded around with their brollies up and then it was a mass exodus!

Nearly everyone buys candles here by the handful to light and place in an altar. Given the size of some of them I am surprised it didn’t start a fire!

Walking around the town, nearly every shop sells tacky religious souvenirs

An hour here was long enough for us and that included having lunch as well!

Leaving Fatima, it was a short road trip to Tomar, where we parked up on a campsite for FREE! (N39.60746 W8.40995).

Enjoying a barbeque of sardines, fresh from the local market

It’s a former municipal campsite that closed down a couple of years ago. We read it had something to do with not being able to renew its license; however, the town have kept it open as an Aire for motorhomers to be able to visit the town. There is a security guard on day and night, the toilets and showers (only cold water) are cleaned daily, bins emptied daily, fresh water taps throughout the campsite and usual facilities for dumping your waste. The grass is cut and there are plenty of trees for shade, so for free what’s not to like. A lot of other motorhomers must agree as there have been a lot of all nationalities come and go over the 3 days/nights we spent here. Not sure how many it can take but at one time Mel counted 40 motorhomes. We were parked up near to another Brit couple (Cath and Graham from Stoke). A friendly couple, who had been motorhomers for years and so Graham and Mel had a lot to talk about!

The small town is split in two by the Rio Nabão with the stunning Convento de Cristo, dominating the skyline of Tomar. Founded in 1160, it was once the headquarters of The Order of the Knights Templar, and when they disbanded in 1319 it was taken over by their successors The Order of Christ. All we knew about the Knights Templar was from our watching of The Da Vinci Code many years ago, and even that’s vague and mostly fictional!

Tomar and Convento de Cristo on the hill

A short uphill walk up a cobbled path takes you through the castle walls and into the convent. Over the years the convent expanded, with conventional buildings added for the monks. With the change of kings came the change in architecture - Romanesque, Manueline and Renaissance.

In brief, a little bit of research tells us that the Templars were a bunch of military monks, founded in 1122AD to protect pilgrims along their path to Jerusalem. They came to Porugal in the 12^th century at the request of Portugal’s King, their main objective was to expel the Moors from Spain and Portugal. After their reconquest/crusade, the Templars reaped their rewards as vast amounts of land was handed over to them. They paid no taxes, roamed freely between borders and became rich and powerful. As such, they became a threat to the authority of the European monarchs. The King of France started the witch-hunt by confiscating all Templar property in France, with a bit of torturing thrown in for good measure. Spain followed suit along with other countries and Portugal became the only safe refuge for them, so, they flocked here to Tomar. In 1319 they were disbanded and in 1357 they changed their name to the Order of Christ.

The impressive 12th century circular temple where the Templars supposedly attended mass on horseback. Patterned on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

In the centre stands the high altar, surrounded by a 2-storey octagon

Chapter House and intricate Manueline window (the style named after King Manuel I), said to symbolise The Tree of Life, it is a mass of maritime motifs.

Mel ‘holding court’ in the pulpit in the refectory, with its ornate cherub detail

One of the 7 cloisters

Walking the castle walls

The whitewashed gridded streets all converge on Praça da República, with the church of São João Baptista and statue of Gualdim Pais (first and grandest Master of the Knights Templar).

Arab Waterwheel by the river

From the back of the castle you glimpse the end of the viaduct, built to provide water for the convent.

We walked a couple of kilometres and got a great view of the structure, which stretches for about 4 miles - a brilliant bit of engineering.

Mel doing his balancing act on the aqueduct

Bella Vista restaurant on the river, where we celebrated my birthday - a beautiful 'silver service' meal

About an hour before we were due to go out for my birthday meal the heavens opened, along with thunder and lightening; about 9 inches of rain fell in the space of about 30 minutes. Poor old Sonny, the motorhome nearly drowned and we had to move off the plot we were on.

When it rains it rains! Our original plot in between the posts - now flooded!

Luckily it eased up and we managed to venture out for a lovely meal at Bella Vista.
The next day we visited a Matchbox Museum. It is housed in an old convent, with a collection of 40,000 matchboxes of all shapes and sizes and from umpteen countries. A bit of a weird collection to have in a museum, but it was free, so we thought why not.

The English Collection

On Sunday there was a festival taking place in the town a mix of religion and culture. It was a real family day with lots of singing, dancing, music, and parades in traditional costumes.

I asked a local women what it was about and she apologised that her English was bad but tried to explain that it was a religious and agricultural celebration dating back to the 1950’s.

It starts from the main square outside the church of São João Baptista and they parade through the town and down to the river, where they hold a religious ceremony and then more singing and partying!