Soon after, reproductions of these constructions were built in many different places, to remind people of these sacred monuments.

By reconstructing temples that reminded people of the sacred places of Jerusalem, the faithful did not have the need to make sacred journeys to the Holy Land once these were seen as the Holy Sepulchre itself, which made complete sense in a Europe “dominated by faith”.

Being considered the moiment of Jesus Christ, the Holy Sepulchre was many times seen as the centre of the world during the XII and XIII centuries and sometimes during the XIV century.

The city of Tomar and its Charola are considered to be a reflexion of all this.

The Charola was the private oratory of the Knights, inside the fortress. Their typology is common Byzantine churches, which returns to integrate the Romanesque with the movement of the Crusades.

This type temple is based on a plant develops around a central space which, in Templar roundabout has the shape of an octagonal prism, or drum, which divides into sixteen paramento faces on the ambulatory, thereby closing the measurements of the building. Completed in 1190, the Rotunda had to turn to the east entrance. Were the works of Manuel I that established the south, the ship that expanded the church, extramural castle.

Already with the castle headquarters of Christ’s knights, Prince Henry, governor and the Order of the mayor from 1420 to 1460, will make the first changes in Templar roundabout in order to provide it with the space requirements to then unfold the liturgical functions of the branch of contemplative monks however he introduced the Militia of Christ. To do this it will open two large windows in the regalia of the two spans of ambulatory facing west, and then install there, pendorado the masonry a chorus of wood. At the same time is open four chapels in the ambulatory walls oriented NE, NO, SE and SO. In the remaining spans install altars surrounding the ambulatory.

With the expansion of the liturgical space by King Manuel I, the woodwork of the Infante are removed and the legs of the big windows are definitely killed to make room for the will of the triumphal arch that articulates the Templar space with the Manueline nave. The Rotunda then will function as the main chapel of the new convent church. Will be enriched with work of sacred art that included sculpture, painting on wood and on leather, mural painting and stucco. Particularly important was the discovery, today, of Manueline paintings dome of ambulatory, and had been covered with lime at a later time the earthquake of 1755, whose effects were felt in the building. Its restoration took place between 1987 and 2014.

The capitals of the columns are still Romanesque (end of 12th century) and depict vegetal and animal motifs, as well as a Daniel in the Lions’ Den scene. The style of the capitals shows the influence of artists working on the Cathedral of Coimbra, which was being built at the same time as the round church.

The interior of the round church is magnificently decorated with late gothic/manueline sculpture and paintings, added during a renovation sponsored by King Manuel I starting in 1499. The pillars of the central octagon and the walls of the ambulatory have polychrome statues of saints and angels under exuberant Gothic canopies, while the walls and ceilings of the ambulatory are painted with Gothic patterns and panels depicting the life of Christ. The paintings are attributed to the workshop of the court painter of Manuel I, the Portuguese Jorge Afonso, while the sculptured decoration is attributed to Flemish sculptor Olivier de Gand and the Spaniard Hernán Muñoz. A magnificent panel depicting themartyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Portuguese painter Gregório Lopes, was painted for the Round Church and now hangs in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon.

During the administration of Prince Henry the Navigator (first half of the 15th century), a gothic nave was added to the round church of the Convent, thus turning the round church into a church apse. From 1510 onwards, King Manuel I ordered the rebuilding of the nave in the style of the time, a mix of late gothic and renaissance that would be called Manueline style by art historians. The architects involved were the Portuguese Diogo de Arruda and the Spaniard João de Castilho.

From the outside, the rectangular nave is covered by abundant Manueline motifs, including gargoyles, gothic pinnacles, statues and “ropes” that remind the ones used in the ships during the Age of Discovery, as well as the Cross of the Order of Christ and the emblem of King Manuel I, the armillary sphere. The so-called Window of the Chapter House (Janela do Capítulo), a huge window visible from the Saint Barbara Cloister in the Western façade of the nave, carries most of the typical Manueline motifs: the symbols of the Order of Christ and of Manuel I, and fantastic and unprecedented elaborations of ropes, corals and vegetal motifs. A human figure in the bottom of the window probably represents the designer, Diogo de Arruda. This window of the Convent constitutes one of the masterworks of Manueline decoration. Above is a smaller circular window and a balustrade. The façade is divided by two string courses of knotted ropes. The round angle buttresses are decorated with gigantic garters (alluding to investiture of Manuel I by the Order of the Garter by the English king Henry VII).

The entrance of the church is done through a magnificent lateral portal, also decorated with abundant Manueline motifs and statues of the Virgin with the Child as well as the Prophets of the Old Testament. This portal was designed by João de Castilho around 1530.

In the interior, the Manueline nave is connected to the Romanesque round church by a large arch. The nave is covered by beautiful ribbed vaulting and has a high choir that used to have Manueline choir stalls, unfortunately destroyed by invading Napoleonic troops in the early 19th century. Under the high choir there is a room that used to be the sacristy of the church.

Its window is the famous Chapter House Window already mentioned.

One of the most important Grand Masters of the Order was Prince Henry the Navigator, who ruled the Order from 1417 up to his death in 1460. Prince Henry gave great impulse to the pioneering Portuguese expeditions during the Age of Exploration. In the Convent, Prince Henry ordered the construction of various cloisters and other buildings. He also sponsored urban improvements in the town of Tomar itself.

Another important personality related to the Order was King Manuel I, who became Master of the Order in 1484 and King of Portugal in 1492. Under his reign there were several important improvements in the Convent, specially the addition of a new nave to the round church and its inner decoration with paintings and sculptures.

The successor of Manuel I, King John III, demilitarised the order, turning it into a more religious order with a rule based on that of Bernard of Clairvaux. He also ordered the construction of a new cloister in 1557, which is one of the best examples of Renaissance architecture in Portugal.

In 1581, after a succession crisis, the Portuguese Nobility gathered in the Convent of Christ in Tomar and officially recognised Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal) as King. This is the beginning of the Iberian Union (1581–1640), during which the Crowns of Portugal and Spain were united in a dynastic union. The aqueduct of the Convent was built during this period.

 

Castle of Tomar with the Convent of Christ inside.

The citadel with the keep is seen in the centre of the image and the round church (with a bell-tower) is to the right.

The famous round church of the castle of Tomar was also built in the second half of the 12th century. The church, like some other templar churches throughout Europe, was modelled after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was believed by the crusaders to be a remnant of the Temple of Solomon. TheChurch of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem may also have served as model.

According to Christian chroniclers, the castle of Tomar resisted in 1190 the attacks of caliph Abu Yusuf al-Mansur, who had previously taken other Portuguese strongholds to the South. A plaque near the entrance of the castle church remembers the feat.

The Convent of Christ of Tomar is one of Portugal’s most important historical and artistic monuments and has been in the World Heritage list of UNESCO since 1983.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Knights Templar helped the Portuguese in the battles against the Muslims, receiving as a reward extensive areas and political power. The castles, churches and villages thrived under its protection. In 1314, Pope Clement V of French origin and Philip IV of France, tried to completely destroy this rich and powerful order (murders, absorption property, atrocities, that would lead Fernando Pessoa to affirm the continuing fight against tyranny, Ignorance and the fanaticism, he said, the three killers of Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order) and Dinis succeeded in transferring to the Order of Christ the properties and privileges of the Templars.

The Order of Christ was thus created in Portugal as Ordo Militia Jesu Christo by Ad bull ae exquibus of March 15, 1319 by Pope John XXII, and King Dinis, shortly after the extinction of the Temple. “It was refound the Temple that previous papal bull of Clement V had condemned to extinction” .

Says the same obra2: “In Portugal, the assets of the Templars were ‘reserved’ on the initiative of the king, moving to the crown between 1309 and 1310, while stemmed the ‘process’, not without the monarch rejected the administrator appointed by Clement V – Stephen Lisbon. These same goods were free for the new congregation in November 26, 1319, and the Pope granted the exception to the kings of Castile and Leon, Aragon and Portugal, coalescing to counter the implementation of the measure which ordered his transfer to the Order of the Hospital. ”

The new Order thus emerged as a reform of the Templars. Everything has changed, to become more or less the same. The habit was the same, the brand also, with a slight change, and property, transmitted by the monarch, corresponded to the Templars goods. “He was given the Cistercian rule ‘remains the same Encyclopedia,” and named Master D. Gil Martins, also master of the Order of Avis, which had adopted the Cistercian rule, with the determination that the new monks elect its own master, after the death of that. The spiritual superior of the Order of Christ was the abbot of Alcobaça. ”

The June 11, 1421, a chapter meeting in Tomar adopted as a rule of the Order of Christ of the Order of Calatrava, which resolved any outstanding issues of a spiritual nature and obedience, keeping in cavalry ball.

The Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ was originally a religious and military order, created March 14, 1319 by the Papal Bull Ad and former quibus of John XXII, which thus acceded to the requests of King Dinis. He received the Order name of Our Lord Jesus Knights Cristo1 and was heir to the property and privileges of the Temple.

In May of that same year, a solemn ceremony was attended by the Archbishop of Évora, the Ensign-Mor United Afonso de Albuquerque and other members of the royal curia, King Dinis ratified in Santarém, the creation of New Order.

Was granted to host the castle of Castro Marim; but in 1357 the seat had already been installed in Tomar, the former headquarters templária2.

In 1789 the Order of Christ was secularized, becoming an honorary order to extinction in 1910, with the implementation of the Portuguese Republic. The order was re-established in 1917 as the Military Order of Christ and is led by its Grand Master, President of the Portuguese Republic.

The post master had spent after 1417 to be exercised by members of the Royal House, which passed to appoint directors and governors by papal appointment.

The first was Prince Henry, “who referred to what appeared to be his” mission “initial, the conquest of Asia, across the maritime travel, the order itself funded.” 3

The ideals of Christian expansion rekindled in the fifteenth century when its Grand Master, Prince Henry, invested the Order of income in offshore exploration. The emblem of the order, the Cross of the Order of Christ, adorned the sails of the caravels that explored the unknown seas.

The result is that in 1454 and 1456, by bulls of Pope Nicholas V and Pope Callistus III respectively, is granted or given obligation to the Order of Christ to establish the spiritual duty on all discovered lands, territories nullius as diocesis, and his diocesan seat the Church of Santa Maria do Olival in Tomar.