Tomar and Fatima Tour from Lisbon, a different tour, but that nevertheless has some similarities, from the importance of the Catholic Church in Portugal to the legacy left by the warrior monks, the Knights Templars.
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The Order of the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, better known as the Order of the Templars, Order of the Temple or Knights Templar, was one of the most famous Military Orders of Cavalry, but certainly the most important of all time.
In addition to possessing wealth (until now still sought) and a huge amount of land in Europe, the Order of the Templars had a large fleet of ships. Knights, as well as feared warriors on land, were also skilled navigators and used their fleet for travel and business with various nations.
Due to the large number of members of the Order, only a few of the knights were imprisoned (mostly French). The knights of other nationalities were not imprisoned and this allowed them to take refuge in other countries.
According to some historians, some knights went to Scotland, Switzerland, Portugal and even more distant, using their ships. Many of them changed their names and settled in different countries, to avoid a persecution of the French king and of the Church.
Tomar and Fatima Tour from Lisbon
Did you know that in the Sanctuary of Fatima, there is a small part of the Berlin Wall ? After the fall of the iron curtain, there were several blocks of this wall that came to appear in several cities of the world.
What few people know is that at the nascent entrance of the sanctuary there is one of these pieces, offered by a Portuguese emigrant in Germany.
There are 2.6 tons of wall, offered in the 1990s in the same place you can read John Paul II’s words on one of his three visits to Fatima: “Thank you heavenly shepherdess, for having guided the people with care for freedom.”
With the message of Fatima being interpreted by Christians as a symbol of hope in the struggle against atheistic communism, many are those who relate the disintegration of the USSR to the events of the Cova da Iria.
Our Tomar and Fatima Tour from Lisbon begins with the visit to the church of Santa Maria dos Olivais, also known as the Church of Santa Maria do Olival, located on the left bank of the river Nabao, in the city of Tomar, Portugal.
The first temple founded around 1160 by D. Gualdim Pais, master of the Order of the Knights Templar, where a Benedictine monastery was formerly built, at the time the head office of the Order of the Templars in Portugal, having served as pantheon of the Order’s masters.
With the extinction of the Order by the Church (Pope Clement V) and King François Philip IV (known as the Beautiful), this church became the head of the Order of Christ, becoming the headquarters of all the churches of the Portuguese Empire, with honors of Cathedral Cathedral.
The entrance of the Convent is made through a portico, an authentic sculpture by João and Diogo de Castilho, in the first church built by the Templar´s master Gualdim Pais, the oratorio or the Charola, a rare octagonal form, where the monks walked around praying, in16th century the Portuguese king D. Manuel add magnified sculptures, paintings and gilded carving.
With the glories of the maritime expansion is renovated with lush constructions in Manueline style, which has in the famous Window of the Chapter its greatest evidence.
In 1312, the Order of the Templars had already been transformed into the Order of Christ, under the care of the infant D. Henrique, who will receive valuable knowledge that will be used for the overseas epic.
This Convent crosses times and artistic languages that travel through Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, Baroque, Unesco World Heritage since 1983.
Tomar a, quite picturesque and historical village, with narrow streets lined with buildings of great cultural significance, wonderful place to explore and visit the Oldest Portuguese ( and one of the Oldest in Europe ) Synagogues.
Why not taste a “Fatias” one of the Tomar´s typical sweets made with egg yolks beaten thoroughly and boiled in a double boiler specially designed for that purpose. At the end of the baking, the cake is unformed and sliced still warm, then the slices are soaked in a sugar syrup.
On May 13, 1917 three children of humble families after the Mass went to pasture the flock of sheep in the lands of the father of one of them, there they felt a flash of lightning, in a bright and serene sky.
According to Sister Lucy’s descriptions, it was “a Lady dressed all in white, brighter than the sun, Lady Mary told the three little children to come six months in a row on the 13th at the same time.
Today, at one end, the theres the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima with its tower of 65 meters. In the center, the Monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, at the other end, the Chapel of the Apparitions, precisely where Lady Mary told the shepherds to built a chapel, and at the opposite end, the Church of the Most Holy Trinity built in 2007.
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