Tour of the castle of the Knights Templar in Portugal

• Tour of the castle of the Knights Templar in Portugal

The Templars (from the French "temple" -. The temple, "Templars"), or the Poor Knights of Christ - military order founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century, a small group of French knights after the First Crusade. Despite the fact that the Templars for some time been the most organized military and political force in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they are poorly finished - on the Inquisition.

Only the Portuguese King Dinis was no "to flog a fever," pandering to the then fans of "hotter". He just started a new award - the Order of Christ, who inherited all the property of the Templars. Persecuted Templars began to flock in Tomar, where painted over the new Templar crosses.

Tomar is located 140 km north of Lisbon, he grew up around Tomarskogo castle of the Knights Templar, built in the 1160s. Later, the castle was rebuilt into a royal monastery Convent of Christ, and was the center of the Order of Christ. That is, in modern parlance, this castle - a kind of city-forming enterprise.

The machine is very convenient to get the signs, and without them the Monastery can be seen long before the entrance to the city, that is. To. Is located on a high hill.

At the entrance there is a roomy car park, where it is convenient to leave the car, pay at the box office 6 EUR and to the guests of the Templars.

In the 15th century, the Order of Christ led a tireless Henry the Navigator. While the whole of Europe frantically looking for the treasure of the Knights Templar, and word of mouth passed on stories about the Holy Grail, the Portuguese Templars, led by the indefatigable Infante is ready for new crusades - across the ocean. Caravel went to sea under the scarlet Cross of the Order of Christ.

Maritime issues in Tomarskom castle so full. This stone and ropes, knots, sail, sea monsters, and just figure sailors.

On the ocean side of the castle walls are overgrown with moss photogenic. He can, and damage the surface (rather scrape it - even damaging walls more), but it was too nice on a gray background. When the weather becomes drier, the moss disappears for a while.

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Wide popularity got a huge rectangular window in the Manueline style, on the western facade of the monastery: how many things are mixed! Crowned box royal symbols and a cross - the symbol of the Order of Christ.

During this window in 19th century British even offered to write off the whole of Portugal national debt. However, the proud, the Portuguese refused to part with a national treasure. There is a legend that in the design of the window encrypted Portugal world domination plan (or at least the path to the treasures of the Order), which amounted to the Templars and personally King Manuel I.

Who considers himself a champion guessing charades? Flag-box in your hands

Window-sail.

Refectory Templar. kitchen and cellar for oil and wine has been arranged in an adjacent room.

It affects road performance of the Templars. The lack of roads, a lot of customs barriers - the fees and charges levied by each feudal each bridge and point of obligatory passage, not counting bandits and pirates, hampered movement. Its roads guarded by the Templars and their intersections built houses where you can stay for the night. Tolls on their roads does not charge a fee - a phenomenon exclusive to the Middle Ages.

One of the main activities of the Order are finances. That the Templars are the inventors of bank checks, and, if the amount of the deposit to be exhaustive, then it can be increased with the subsequent completion of relatives. Each was equipped with a fingerprint check depositor finger. For operations with checks Order took a relatively small fee.

The presence of checks frees people from the need to move the precious metal plays the role of money. Now you can go on a pilgrimage with a small piece of parchment, and any provincial commander to obtain a full and coin. Thus, the money the property of the owner of the check became inaccessible to thieves.

Caught in a complex property relations with the kings of European countries and the Pope, the Templars were arrested, tortured and executed by the French king Felipe IV, the great feudal lords and the Roman Catholic Church. As a result of these events, the order was abolished by Pope Clement V in 1312. But the treasure of the Knights Templar are looking so far.