Greetings to Gold Level and Silver Level Templar Knights and today I want to give you a Templar summer holiday idea. Pack your bags and head to Tomar in Portugal for the most full-on Templar experience!
For the last 15 years, I’ve repeatedly visited the central Portuguese town of Tomar. Why? Because nowhere on earth evokes those medieval warrior knights like this place.
High on a hill overlooking Tomar is an octagonal tower built by the Templars in the 12th century surrounded by a 16th century complex of buildings that once formed a convent for the Order of Christ - a successor organisation to the Templars in Portugal.
The octagonal tower is known as the ‘charola’ and was loosely modelled on the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem - the alleged site of both the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ.
As you can see in the video below, the walls of the charola are richly decorated. If you look closely, there is a depiction of Saint Christopher as a ‘dog head’ - half man and half canine - a curious belief in the Middle Ages that such creatures existed and this saint was one of them.
Tomar is situated in an area of Portugal often fought over by Muslim and Christian armies at the time of the Crusades. It’s hard to imagine now that this idyllic town once echoed to the sound of clashing swords and chilling war cries. One of the entrances to the Templar citadel on the hill is still called the Gate of Blood - where rival armies hacked at each other with utter brutality.
There are notable landmarks in Tomar such as the church of Santa Maria Olival where Portuguese Templar grand masters are buried and the church of John the Baptist. There are various theories about tunnels connecting these sites and possible buried Templar treasure.
In 2017, I went to investigate these claims with the team from a History channel documentary series, Buried. Sadly we came away empty handed. The Holy Grail and any other sacred items eluded us!