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Monastery of Alcobaca

Monastery of Alcobaca
The Monastery of Alcobaça is a unique monastic establishment and a masterpiece of Gothic Cistercian art. It was founded by the first Portuguese King, Afonso Henriques, in 1153, and maintained a close association with the Kings of Portugal throughout its history.

The building of the monastery began in 1178, some 25 years after the arrival of the Cistercian monks in the Alcobaça region. Initially, the monks lived in wooden houses, and only moved to the new stone monastery buildings in 1223. The church was completed in 1252. The finished church and monastery were the first truly Gothic buildings in Portugal, and the church was the largest in Portugal.

The church includes Royal Tombs and the Royal Pantheon. The kitchen of the monastery was built and covered with tiles in the mid-18th century. The central chimney is enormous, supported by eight iron columns. Water and fresh fish were diverted from the river Alcoa to the kitchen basin through a specially-built canal.


Year Decision Comments
1989 Inscribed Reasons for inscription



Visit December 2002

One of my Portuguese favourites, this site is. Two hours by public bus from Lisbon, through continuous rain, took me there.

But the sun started to shine when I arrived in the town of Alcobaça. The Monastery is in the heart of it, so locals are confronted by it every day when they go to the post office or shopping.

While the outside looks massive, the inside is very pretty. I especially lingered in the huge kitchen. This is completely covered with white and blue tiles and has a strangely scaped chimney (see picture above).

More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery

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Reviews

Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
From the lonely train station, I took a taxi to revisit the famous Monastery of Santa Maria of Alcobaça which located almost in the middle of the small town of the same name, Alcobaça. After got information on connecting bus to Batalha from the very friendly tourist information and nice hot chocolate from the lovely café on the monastery square, I was ready to explore the huge monastery again. The first thing I admired was the monastery’s façade and entrance; its perfect proportion with the rest of the complex was really well designed and its lovely sculptures were really supporting the overall ensemble. For interior, at first, I was quite disappointed to the really plainness of the church, but the magnificent tombs of Petro I and his wife, Ines de Castro and their tragic love story colorfully filled the church with romantic theme.

Other highlights were the cloister, the refectory and the monastery kitchen, the cloister was really large with many lovely decorations especially from the second floor, and the fountain hall was one of the best sights of the monastery. The refectory, in my opinion, maybe the most elaborated room of the monastery with many beautiful window channels, and lovely pulpit. The monastery kitchen was quite unique with the really big chimney liked industrial factory. For other parts of the monastery were quite simple with really plain design with some glazed tiles decorated, a very typical Portuguese interior. The tour route inside the monastery was quite well organized and after many rooms, I was back to the church again. Actually only a quarter of the monastery was opened to the public which made me wondered for the rest of the complex that reportedly destroyed and looted by French troop and anti-clerical riot and now are developing to be exhibition gallery.

It was really tempted to compare Alcobaça Monastery with other three WHS listed monastic buildings of Portugal, Batalha, Tomar and Belem. Each had many similarities especially in term of architecture, but each site had unique characteristic enough to shrine by itself; for example, Batalha was so fanciful and load of elaborated details, Tomar was liked a fortress or labyrinth more than convent, and Belem was so stately and well maintained with superb quality. For my opinion, Alcobaça was in the middle of all, the monastery was very large with some acceptable elaborated details with simple but elegant elements of state monument, but one thing really outstanding was the monastery complex surprisingly made a feeling of home with spacious, warm and bright rooms more than other places testifying the perfect living place for generations of monk who called this place as a home.
Date posted: January 2012
John Booth (New Zealand):
The blue and white tile panels at Alcobaca station are also interesting, depicting scenes from the Holy Land.
The station is at Valado, some distance from the monastery. Connecting buses are available during the week, but at the weekend there are only taxis.
Date posted: April 2010
David Cris?stomo (Portugal):
its a magnificent and beutifull place. It has the large church in portugal and it reprensents a great testimony of the portugal's independence. In fact 3 kings of Portugal, are buried there.
Date posted: June 2008
ivan mandy (Philippines):
I love the grandeur and simplicity of this place. Reminded me of the design addage "Less is More".
Date posted: July 2006
antonio da costa (canada):
I have visited this site on a family trip some years ago.
It is an overwelming site like many in Portugal large or small.
Date posted: January 2006


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