The Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória (better known as Monastery of Batalha) is located in Batalha, Portugal, and ordered the construction in 1386 by King John I of Portugal2 as thanks to the Virgin Mary for the victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota. This Dominican monastery was built over two centuries until about 1517, during the reign of seven kings of Portugal, although since 1388 there have lived the first Dominicans. Example of the Portuguese late Gothic architecture, or Manueline, is world heritage by UNESCO, and on July 7, 2007 was elected as one of the seven wonders of Portugal. In Portugal, the IPPAR still classifies it as a National Monument since 1910.

In the beginning of the works of the Monastery of Batalha was built a small temple, whose remains were still visible in the early nineteenth century. It was in this building – Santa Maria-a-Velha, also known as Old Church – which was celebrated Mass, giving support to the shipyard workers. It was a poor work, made with scarce resources.

In schematic traces know the evolution of the site itself and the degree of progress of the works. It is known that the initial project corresponds to church, cloister and the monastic dependencies inherent, as the Hall of the Chapter, sacristy, refectory and attachments. It is a model that resembles adopted, in terms of internal organization, the great Alcobaça monastery.

The Chapel of the Founder, funeral chapel, was added to this initial project by himself King John I, as do the funeral roundabout known for Unfinished Chapels, the king’s initiative Duarte.

The lower cloister and adjacent premises, would be due to the initiative of King Afonso V, and notice the disinterest of King John II the building. Would you receive the royal favor with Manuel, but only to 1516-1517, that is, until its decision in decidedly favor the factory of the Jeronimos Monastery.

The monastery was restored in the nineteenth century, under the direction of Louis Mouzinho of Albuquerque, according to the traces of Thomas Pitt, the English traveler who had been in Portugal in the late eighteenth century, and which had expressed throughout Europe through the monastery of his prints. In this restoration, the Monastery suffered more or less profound changes, in particular the destruction of two cloisters, with the Unfinished Chapels and extinction in a framework of religious orders in Portugal, the total removal of religious symbols, trying to make the Monastery a glorious symbol of Avis dynasty and especially of its first generation (said illustrious Camões Generation). Data that time the current configuration of the Founder’s Chapel and the popularization of the term Monastery of Batalha (celebrating Aljubarrota) over Santa Maria da Vitória, in an attempt to definitively eradicate the names that remind the religious background of the building.