Tour Stop 2: Batalha Monastery

We could see the Monastery from a distance as we approached. This was the area where historically the Portugese army of 10,000 stopped the Spanish Army of 30,000 from getting to Lisbon to conquer that Capitol. It was impressive because based on numbers the Portugese did not think they could win the battle. The day after the battle began, the Spanish left thinking they could not win!! So the Portugese were very surprised when they could not see any Spanish and thus were victorious and held their control. The Monastery was built to commemorate the victorious battle over the Castilians and took many years. As the story goes, the architect, Mateus Fernandes built the majority of the Monastery but was losing his eyesight, so the King made the decision to replace him with another architect who finished the remaining chapel dome. The elder architect told the King he could do it, but to no avail. He was very hurt and living in the vicinity he had to listen to the continued building. The new architect completed the dome and as everyone was gathered for a mass, they all heard the crashing sounds of the chapel and dome collapsing! Several people went to the King to tell him that would not have happened if Mateus Fernando had been allowed to continue. The king approached Mateus and asked him to rebuild it. He was still hurt, but agreed to compete it. When he finished the rebuild, the King brought in
prisoners who had been sentenced to death to stand inside to be the test subjects!! If it collapsed they would die, but if it held, they would be given their freedom. Mateus himself said he would test his.own work and sat in the middle of the chapel under the dome for 3 days. He did not eat or drink and was very frail. The dome held and is still standing today. Mateus Fernandes died a few days after his test of the dome and is buried in the Monastery.
The architecture is Manueline, Gothic and Renaissance. It is a Unesco World Heritage sight and is truly incredible.Read more