Both Alcobaça and Batalha are famous for their monasteries. Monastery of Alcobaça was founded in 1153. It is best known for two magnificent Gothic tombs in the monastery. One was for King Pedro I. The other was for his mistress, Inês de Castro, who was murdered on the orders of Pedro's father, King Afonso IV. King Pedro I wanted their tombs to be close so at the Last Judgment Pedro and Inês can look at each other as they rise from their graves.

1. Monastery of Alcobaça.


2. Monastery of Alcobaça.


3. Tile work in King's Room, Monastery of Alcobaça.


4. Tile work in King's Room, Monastery of Alcobaça.


5. Tomb of King Pedro I.


6. Tomb of King Pedro I.


7. Tomb of King Pedro I and tomb of Inês de Castro.


8. Tomb of Inês de Castro.


9. Tomb of Inês de Castro.


The Monastery of Batalha was built to commemorate the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota. The construction started in 1386 and ended around 1517 when the Portuguese king decided to put all his efforts in the construction of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, leaving part of the monastery unfinished.

10. From Alcobaça, Batalha is an easy 30 minutes bus ride (€3.2 per person). After getting off the bus and walked toward the giant church, this was what we first saw.


11. Monastery of Batalha.


12. Main entrance of Monastery of Batalha.


13. This door is amazing.


14. The joint tomb of King John I of Portugal (d.1433) and his wife Philippa of Lancaster (d.1415) in Founders' Chapel.


15. The ceiling of Founders' Chapel.


16. Other tombs in Founders' Chapel.


17. An archway in the Royal Cloister of Monastery of Batalha.


18. Royal Cloister of Monastery of Batalha.


19. Royal Cloister of Monastery of Batalha.


20. Royal Cloister of Monastery of Batalha.


21. Entrance (where the lady stood) to the Unfinished Chapels of Monastery of Batalha.


22. Unfinished Chapels of Monastery of Batalha.


23. Archway to the Unfinished Chapels.


24. This archway is so amazing.


25. This archway is so amazing.


After Batalha, I wanted to go to Fátima by bus. But the lady at the TI office (just outside the Unfinished Chapels) told me that the next bus would be 3 hours away, but there were taxis waiting outside that could take me to Fátima. So we took the taxi, which cost €18.

Fátima is a small village of about 8,000 people, 18km from Batalha. No one would have heard of it if it is not because of a series of six Marian apparitions to three shepherd children in the village of Fátima in 1917. The apparitions were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church in 1930. Multiple Popes have visited Fátima multiple times since. Four millions of pilgrims come to Fátima every year.

26. The taxi driver dropped us off at a pedestrian street near the Sanctuary of Fátima, where religious souvenir shops abound.


27. Chapel of Apparitions. The exact spot of the apparitions is marked by a marble pillar on which the Statue of Our Lady is placed.


28. An open-air structure protecting the Chapel of Apparitions. We saw two pilgrims circling the structure on their knees when we were there.


29. Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary was under renovation for the100th anniversary of the apparitions.


30. The giant space between Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary (consecrated in 1953) and Basilica of the Holy Trinity (consecrated in 2007) to accommodate large-scale pilgrimages and religious services.


31. A picture of Pope Benedict XVI leads the Mass at Fátima's Sanctuary on May 13 2010. An estimated 500,000 people attended the Mass.

Image from Internet

(To be continued)