Alcobaça & Batalha

Alcobaça Monastery and Batalha Monastery are located between Obidos and Coimbra, difficult to reach by public transportation, we hired a guide and drive for the day. Alcobaça has the tombs of the unfortunate lovers, don Pedro and doña Ines de Castro. In a nutshell, doña Inés was lady in waiting to the woman Pedro had to marry for political reasons but he and Inés fell in love and carried on quite an affair. Pedro’s father, the king Alfonso, was worried that Inés’ brothers were using her to take over the crown of Portugal. When Pedro’s first wife died, Alfonso refused to sanction a marriage with Inés and, instead, had her beheaded. Somehow, they managed to have 13 children before that, though, and may or may not have gotten married secretly! When Pedro became king, he exhumed Inés (eeks) and sat her on the throne to be crowned and ordered everyone to kiss her hand. Supposedly, Pedro also tracked down the three assassins and cut out their hearts. Well, it’s quite a story, and the tombs are spectacularly carved, and Coimbra (where the assassination took place) and Alcobaça both make the most of the story! At the magnificent monastery of Batalha where, among other things, we learned that the sculptural motifs in Manueline architecture are all related to the sea: ship ropes, nets, fish, sea creatures, corals, sea plants, etc. The same motifs were in used in the Jeronimos monastery and elsewhere. It’s a very unique style, totally different from any other Gothic or early Renaissance sculptural vocabulary.