Monastery of Alcobaca

Facing the Moors at Santarém, Afonso Henríques invoked God's blessing and vowed he would erect an impressive monastery if God granted him victory. God yielded to his prayers and Alfonso kept his promise. Today the fascinating UNESCO-protected complex is one of the most important national legacies and a prime tourist attraction. Representing the arrival of Gothic in Portugal, it is not only vast, lofty and heavily ornamental, but also brimming with ribald accounts of medieval monastic decadence and gloomy stories of royal star-crossed lovers, including that of Dom Pedro and Dona Ines lying in face-to-face tombs so that they can look at each other first thing on Judgment Day.