Tomar: Templar and Jewish Heritage

Two histories share one small town on the river Nabão, and most day-trippers only ever hear about one of them. Tomar was founded by the Knights Templar in 1160, and when the order was crushed across Europe, Portugal simply renamed it: the Templars became the Order of Christ, and their wealth went on to finance the ships of the Discoveries. The Convent of Christ they left behind is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, in my opinion, the most extraordinary building in central Portugal.

We start at the top, inside the Charola - the round Templar church where knights are said to have heard mass on horseback, modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. From there through the cloisters and out to the Manueline Chapter House window, the single most famous piece of carved stone in the country: ropes, corals, seaweed and anchors, an entire maritime empire turned into architecture.

Then we walk down into the town for the other history. Halfway along a quiet street stands a small 15th-century building that survived by being forgotten - used as a prison, a chapel and a grocery warehouse before it was recognised for what it is. It is one of the best-preserved medieval synagogues in Portugal, and today it holds the Abraham Zacuto Luso-Hebraic Museum, named after the astronomer whose tables guided Vasco da Gama to India. We take our time here, and in the streets of the old Jewish quarter around it.

There is time, too, for the streets of Tomar themselves and for a slow stroll along the Nabão, the river that gives the town its calm.

This is a private tour, guided in your language - English, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian or French.

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Meeting point

Pick-up at your Lisbon accommodation