Batalha

Monastery • Batalha, Leiria

At the Monastery of Batalha, the memory of a victory was turned into stone. King João I ordered it to be built in fulfilment of the vow he made after Aljubarrota, and what began as an act of thanksgiving became, for more than a century and a half, the great building site of the Portuguese monarchy. Here the late Gothic and the Manueline styles took shape, yet the place impresses as much for its history as for its form: the soaring nave, the lace-like Royal Cloister and the Unfinished Chapels give the whole complex a solemn, restless beauty. In the Founder’s Chapel, the tomb of João I and Philippa of Lancaster, surrounded by the tombs of their children, also makes the monastery the symbolic heart of the Avis dynasty. Between convent silence, filtered light and golden stone, one understands why this monument is at once a memory of independence, a royal pantheon and one of the most striking creations of Portuguese art.