The Templars and the crusader castles

The order that vanished in a single day, and the fortresses it left behind.

Portugal and Spainfrom 7 days13 stops

Free, no account needed. You'll still be able to change dates, travellers and the rest.

Where it goes

Convento de Cristo
The Templar seat in Portugal, and a World Heritage site. When the pope dissolved the order in 1312, Portugal refounded it here under another name rather than lose it.
La Charola
The twelfth-century Templar rotunda, copied from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The knights heard mass on horseback, riding around it.
Ventana manuelina
The Chapter window, carved with ropes, corals and seaweed: the reconstituted Templar order financed the age of discovery, and the stone says so.
Acueducto dos Pegões
Six kilometres and 180 arches to carry water to the convent. You can walk along the top.
Castillo de Almourol
A Templar fortress on an islet in the middle of the Tagus, reachable only by boat. 20 km out.

Convento do Carmo
The Gothic church the 1755 earthquake left roofless, and roofless it was left. Founded by a knight of the military orders.
Torre de Belém
Look for the crosses of the Order of Christ — the reconstituted Templars — carved into the stone: they are the same ones the caravels carried on their sails.
Monasterio de los Jerónimos
Paid for with the tax on pepper from the Indies. It is the culmination of the Manueline style that begins in Tomar.
Castillo de São Jorge
The Moorish fortress taken in 1147 with the help of crusaders on their way to the Holy Land. The view of the Tagus from up here is the view from the port they sailed from.

Castillo de los Templarios
The fortress the order built to protect pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. It is one of the best-preserved Templar castles in Europe.
Biblioteca Templaria
Inside the castle, with over 1,400 facsimiles of medieval codices. Some of them can be consulted.
Las Médulas
The Roman gold mine that left a red landscape of pinnacles and galleries, and a World Heritage site. 25 km out.
El Camino a su paso por el Bierzo
The Templars of Ponferrada existed for this: the iron bridge the town is named after was built for the pilgrims.

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