Portugal tour

March 12-24, 2003

Early Booking Price, before November 12, 2002: $3275

Regular Price, from November 12, 2002: $3575

Single Supplement $445, Deposit $600

Tour Director: Professor Peter Gravgaard

Itinerary

Day 1 (March 12, 2003)

You fly to Lisbon, Portugal. Please book a flight which arrives between 08:00 am and 02:00 pm on Day 2 of the tour)

Day 2 (March 13, 2003)

Your tour director will meet you at Lisbon Airport and take you to your hotel, where you will stay for the next five nights.

Day 3 (March 14, 2003)

We begin with a walking and driving tour of the city of Lisbon. Sights to see include: Praça de Comercio, the Cathedral, the Castle of Sao Jorge, the Church of Madre de Deus, the Palace of the National Assembly, the Jeronimos Monastery, the Torre de Belem, the Monument to the Discoveries and the Museums. The following should be mentioned:

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, where you should not miss the six panels taken from the church of Sao Vicente de Fora. They were painted ca 1467-1470 by Nuno Goncalves (possibly a pupil of Jan van Eyck, who visited Lisbon in 1428). The panels depict sixty people from the time of Henry the Navigator.

Other museums which may interest you are: Museu Etnografico do Ultramar, Museu Escola de Artes Decorativas, Museu do Azulejo, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Gulbenkian Museum of Modern Art.

After sightseeing, you may wish to relax in one of Lisbon's famous coffee- houses, such as Café a Brasileira (120 Rua Garrett), Pastelaria Suica (96 Rossio) or Café Nicola (also on Rossio).

Day 4 (March 15, 2003)

Today we take you to Sintra to see the castle where Dom Joao resided with Queen Filippa (once of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt). This is also where they received Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, who came here in 1429 to marry their daughter, Dona Isabel.

There is another castle in Sintra, the Pena Palace, built in 1840 by King Ferdinand II, formerly Prince of Saxe Cobourg-Gotha (like Queen Victoria's Prince Albert). One look at this will show you that Ludwig of Bavaria was not the only obsessive castle-builder of this era!

Day 5 (March 16, 2003)

Today we take you to Evora in the Alentejo. This beautiful city has been given World Heritage status by UNESCO and we will stay here for two nights in an attempt to do it justice. As another writer on Evora has put it so well:

We must not attempt to see everything; nor think that we have seen everything because we have visited the Roman temple, the Roman baths, the frescoes of Casa de Burgos, the Regional Museum, the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the Church of S.Francisco and its Chapel of Bones, the cloisters of the University, the Misericordia Church or the Manueline window of the house of Garcia de Resende. Monuments are a fundamental aspect of the city, and just to visit what is normally considered essential requires several days. It is important not to be in a hurry. Evora is not a museum of individual pieces. It is an urban entity that should be discovered on foot. It is the atmosphere of the streets, the light and shade on the whitewashed walls, the Jewish quarter and the Moorish quarter, the houses moulded by the aqueduct, the passageways where clothes hang to dry, the arcades that sustain and shelter, the wrought iron balconies, the fountain that offers benches to sit on, the detail of the sgraffitti or of the plaster plaques, the glimpsed inner patio, the noble main squares and the popular small ones. At night it is different from during the day. But it is also a live city; the movement in Praça Giraldo is not just on Tuesdays for the market. It is the thousands of University students, the pupils from the schools, the actors from the theatre, the sculptors in marble, the archaeologists with inexhaustible material to excavate; it is the daily round which takes the inhabitants to ancient convents and palaces to pay their insurance, their taxes, their bills for water and light; it is the quality shops and the traditional tradesmen and women, the coffee at the counter of a trendy café and the tavern snack at the end of the day.

After this blessing of the little things in ordinary life let us enjoy our exploration of Evora.

Day 6 (March 17, 2003)

Today we could go on a drive to explore the surroundings of Evora: I suggest we visit Viana do Alentejo, Alvito and Vidigueira and, perhaps, Monsaraz and Sao Pedro de Corval. Alternatively, you might prefer to continue exploring Evora on your own.

Day 7 (March 18, 2003)

Our first stop today will be Arraiolos, famous for its castle, its charming Fountain of the Muleteers and its beautiful carpets. Then on to Almourol, the amazing Templar castle which was built on an island in the river Tejo by the Templar Grand Master, Gualdim Pais, in 1171. (It is mentioned by Francisco de Morais in his romance of chivalry, Palmerin of England. It was reading this book, among others, which drove Don Quixote mad.) From Almourol we drive to Tomar, where we spend the night.

Day 8 (March 19, 2003)

Today we will visit Tomar, Batalha Abbey and the battlefield of Aljubarrota before spending the night in Alcobaça.

We begin with Tomar. Like Almourol, the Tomar castle was built by Gualdim Pais, in 1160. King Dinis dissolved the Order of the Templars in 1314 but, recognizing their usefulness to the crown, he immediately 'refounded' them as the Order of Christ. They moved their headquarters to Tomar in 1356 and the former Templar castle has since been known as the 'Convent of Christ'.

Some of the writers on Tomar see the complex as encoded (ie the buildings have secret meanings which only the initiated can read). For instance, David J. Evans (in his Cadogan Portugal, p. 338) writes:

The mystical tenets of the Templars are never more apparent than in their architecture; the outer walls of the Convento de Cristo are a mirror image of a stellar constellation, with the Charola taking Orion's position.

And (p. 339)

The original church was a 16-sided polygon, based on the design of the Temple of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

You might, therefore, say that the Convent of Christ participates in the force of the heavens as well as that of the Holy Land because it echoes them.

Henry the Navigator, who played a determining role in Portugal's maritime expansion, was the Governor of the Order of Christ, and it was with the emblem of the Knights of Christ on their sails that the Portuguese caravels set out to discover the world. It is, no doubt, significant that Henry also took the greatest interest in the final construction of the Convent of Christ: he had a chapel built on the eastern side of the Charola and he also caused the Cemetery Cloister and the Ablutions Cloister to be built. What the final interpretation of the complex should be remains to be determined.

Please also notice the famous Manueline chapter house window.

From Tomar we drive to Batalha to see the famous abbey which was built by Joao I to celebrate his victory over the Spanish army in the battle of Aljubarrota on August 14, 1385.

The building was started in 1402 under Afonso Domingues and was continued under different architects until ca.1550. It consists of a main church in Dominican style - no belltower; then an octagonal mausoleum (to the east of the main nave) ordered by King Duarte (1433-38), the eldest son of King Joao.

To the south of the main nave is located the Founder's Chapel, continuing the tombs of King Joao and his wife, Dona Filippa (the daughter of John of Gaunt). Here are also the tombs of their children, 'the Glorious Generation', among them Henry the Navigator.

Our next stop will be the Battlefield of Aljubarrota where the Portuguese army of 6,500, reinforced with 500 English crossbowmen (thanks to the alliance with John of Gaunt) defeated a much larger Castilian army (estimated at 30,000) under the command of King Juan I of Castile. The Portuguese used cavalry traps which were extremely successful against the heavy Spanish cavalry - the battle lasted only one hour, but for two hundred years the Spaniards left Portugal alone.

An amusing detail: Nun 'Alvarez Pereira, the Portuguese commander, promised that from then on forever there would always be a jug of cold water ready in the local chapel for whoever came to need it as he himself did after the battle of Aljubarrota!

There is now only a short drive to Alcobaça, where we will spend the night.

Day 9 (March 20, 2003)

Today we will first visit the Abbey of Alcobaça. History tells us that, in gratitude to God for the conquest of Santarem from the Moors, King Afonso Henriques gave the lands of Alcobaça to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux so that the Cistercians could build a monastery here. They were successful and helpful to the crown: in 1269 they founded Portugal's first public school, and later they helped King Dinis to found the first university in Lisbon. (It later moved to Coimbra.)

The Abbey of Alcobaça is large and simple, modelled on the Cistercian church in Citeaux, France. Most impressive are the tombs of Dom Pedro of Portugal and his beloved wife, Dona Inez de Castro. Their tombs are positioned so that on Judgment Day when the tombs open their first sight will be of each other.

Their story is that Dom Pedro, son of King Afonso V and a widower, fell in love with Inez de Castro, the lady-in-waiting of his dead wife. Inez was Spanish and the King's councillors, fearing growing Spanish influence, poisoned his mind against her. Not knowing that Dom Pedro and Inez had secretly married to legitimize their children, the King sanctioned her murder.

Two years later the King died and Dom Pedro became King. He had his wife's murderers hunted down and killed and had Inez' decomposing body placed on the throne. He then forced the court to pay homage to her. After this gruesome ceremony she was buried in Alcobaça, waiting for her husband, the King, to join her.

From Alcobaça we will drive to Conimbriga to see Portugal's most important Roman site, the ruins of an important provincial town which prospered between ca.25 BC and ca.600 AD. There are fine mosaics here.

From Conimbriga we drive to Coimbra where we will spend two nights.

Day 10 (March 21, 2003)

Today we will visit Portugal's oldest and most prestigious university, founded by King Dinis and the Cistercians from Alcobaça. We begin with the High Town. Here are located the Old University: University Courtyard and the Ceremonial Hall, the Manueline Chapel, Museum of Sacred Art and the magnificent Baroque Library, built between 1717 and 1723 by King Joao V. Here too are the New Cathedral and the Botanical Gardens.

Walking down to the Lower Town we will take the Rua da Matematica and the Rua de S.Salvador: this is where the Fraternities (the republicas) have their houses. We will visit the Machado de Castro Museum (in the old Bishop's Palace) with its fine collections of sculpture and ceramics. Continuing on Rua Borges Carneiro we come to the Old Cathedral, perhaps the finest Romanesque cathedral in the country. Other interesting buildings are the Church of Santa Cruz and the Convent Church of Santa Clara-a-Velha. Close by is the Quinta das Lagrimas (Garden of Tears) where Inez de Castro was killed.

There will be time for exploring Coimbra or shopping before we return to our hotel for dinner. Coimbra style ceramics are famous and have been influenced by traditions from Moorish Iberia, India and the Orient, as well as Flanders.

Look out for shops such as Chiado on Rua Ferreiro.

Day 11 (March 22, 2003)

Today we drive from Coimbra to Porto, where we will stay for two nights.

Day 12 (March 23, 2003)

This morning we will explore the city of Porto. Sights to see include the Baroque Clerigos Church (from 1732-49), the Soares dos Reis Museum, the Bolsa (Stock Exchange), the Church of S.Francisco and the Cathedral. For shoppers there is the Center of Traditional Arts and Crafts in the Rua da Reboleira and the the Bolhao Market offers everything edible.

In the afternoon we will cross the river to Vila Nova de Gaia to visit the port wine lodges.

In the evening we will have our FAREWELL DINNER.

Day 13 (March 24, 2003)

It is the last day so we will take you to Porto Airport for your flight to Lisbon before connecting with your transatlantic flight back home.

BON VOYAGE!

Bibliography

Hans Christian Andersen, A Visit to Portugal, 1869
C.R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415-1825, 1969
Camoes, The Lusiads, Penguin, 1985
Almeida Garrett, Travels in my Homeland
Thor Heyerdahl, Let the Conquered Speak
Charles Nowell, History of Portugal, 1952
F.Pessoa, Selected Poems
Edgar Prestage, The Portuguese Pioneers
Eca de Queiros, The Maias
Richard Robinson, Contemporary Portugal, 1979
T.W.E. Roche, Philippa: Dona Filipa of Portugal, Chichester, 1971
Aubrey Bell, translation, Four Plays by Gil Vicente