Guided tour: Templar Castle and Convent of Christ

The castle was founded in 1160 and included the walled village, the yard and the military house located between the Master's house, the Alcazaba, and the knights' oratory, in a roundabout, the Charola, the latter completed in 1190. In 1420, with the castle then the seat of the Order of Christ, Infante D. Henrique, the Navigator, transformed the military house into a convent, for the branch of contemplative religious that he introduced into the Order of Christ, and adapted the Alcazaba for his manor house.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, King Manuel I, King and Governor of the Order of Christ, enlarged the Templar Rotunda to the west, with a new construction, which began a decorative discourse that celebrated the Portuguese maritime discoveries, the mystique of the Order of Christ and the Crown in a grandiose manifestation of power and faith.

To finish we will visit the Pegões aqueduct, a Philippine work from the beginning of the century. XVII that provided the supply of drinking water to the Convent of Christ.