Nov 3 Alcobaca, Portugal
Alcobaca is a town near but not on the coast and is within 10 miles of Nazare, our previous destination.
The interesting point in Alcobaca is the Monestary (and Church) of Alcobaca. In Portuguese it is the Mosteiro de Santa Maria (Saint Mary) de Alcobaça. The first two images are of the exterior. The first is mine and shows Beth and George and displays the enormous vertical scale of this structure. The second is from all-about-Portugal.com and shows the horizontal scale, except a lot of the structure is to the right of the end of the image.
The third image from commons.wikipedia.com shows the church part of the structure. In addition to the pointed arch in the church, the portal is a gothic (pointed arch) design and the narrow windows are gothic but the towers are baroque (egregious display of color and ornament).
There are two tombs in the church. The one with the angels and the dog on it (image 4) is the tomb of Pedro (Peter in English) I. The one with George in the image (image 5) is for Ines de Castro. She became Queen after she died in what is the most famous story in Portugal and the subject of the many important literary, art and musical works in Portugal. In addition to Pedro I, Alfonso II and Alfonso III are buried under the church.
Ines was assassinated by agents of Alfonso IV (Pedro's father) who did not like the blossoming love affair between them. The affair occurred while Pedro was married to Constance of Castile (Ines was chief of the maidservents to Constance). Our tour manager had heard a story that the reason for the assassination was that Ines was descended from Jews but I couldn't find corroboration of that and, in fact Ines had various royal blood lines from all over northern Spain (her last name, de Castro, was a common Jewish name however). Normative opinion is that Alfonso decided (reasonably) that this affair would reflect badly on Portugal. When Constance died in 1345 there was a real risk that Pedro would marry Ines as he refused several royally initiated engagements. Ines was killed in 1355 in Coimbra at a monastery. After her death, Pedro had her dead body placed on the throne and demanded his courtiers to kiss her hand, which apparently they did. After some time of sitting on the throne as a corpse, Ines was interred in a ceremony with significant pomp and circumstance.
The last image (from Martapart.eu shows the scale of the monastery in relation to the church. The church took about a hundred years to complete (1153 to 1254). When it was completed it was the first fully Gothic church in Europe and one of the biggest churches in the world (it is still the largest in Portugal). The Baroque towers were added in the 18th century. The monastery took 'only' about 45 years to build, from 1178 to 1223. There was probably enough space for several hundred monks in this complex. Since 1834, no monks at all have been in this complex.
The interesting point in Alcobaca is the Monestary (and Church) of Alcobaca. In Portuguese it is the Mosteiro de Santa Maria (Saint Mary) de Alcobaça. The first two images are of the exterior. The first is mine and shows Beth and George and displays the enormous vertical scale of this structure. The second is from all-about-Portugal.com and shows the horizontal scale, except a lot of the structure is to the right of the end of the image. 
The third image from commons.wikipedia.com shows the church part of the structure. In addition to the pointed arch in the church, the portal is a gothic (pointed arch) design and the narrow windows are gothic but the towers are baroque (egregious display of color and ornament).
There are two tombs in the church. The one with the angels and the dog on it (image 4) is the tomb of Pedro (Peter in English) I. The one with George in the image (image 5) is for Ines de Castro. She became Queen after she died in what is the most famous story in Portugal and the subject of the many important literary, art and musical works in Portugal. In addition to Pedro I, Alfonso II and Alfonso III are buried under the church.
Ines was assassinated by agents of Alfonso IV (Pedro's father) who did not like the blossoming love affair between them. The affair occurred while Pedro was married to Constance of Castile (Ines was chief of the maidservents to Constance). Our tour manager had heard a story that the reason for the assassination was that Ines was descended from Jews but I couldn't find corroboration of that and, in fact Ines had various royal blood lines from all over northern Spain (her last name, de Castro, was a common Jewish name however). Normative opinion is that Alfonso decided (reasonably) that this affair would reflect badly on Portugal. When Constance died in 1345 there was a real risk that Pedro would marry Ines as he refused several royally initiated engagements. Ines was killed in 1355 in Coimbra at a monastery. After her death, Pedro had her dead body placed on the throne and demanded his courtiers to kiss her hand, which apparently they did. After some time of sitting on the throne as a corpse, Ines was interred in a ceremony with significant pomp and circumstance.
The last image (from Martapart.eu shows the scale of the monastery in relation to the church. The church took about a hundred years to complete (1153 to 1254). When it was completed it was the first fully Gothic church in Europe and one of the biggest churches in the world (it is still the largest in Portugal). The Baroque towers were added in the 18th century. The monastery took 'only' about 45 years to build, from 1178 to 1223. There was probably enough space for several hundred monks in this complex. Since 1834, no monks at all have been in this complex.
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