Batalha Monastery

18 May 2013

Batalha Monastery

Batalha monastery is in Batalha around 130 kms from Lisbon along a nice toll autoroute. In fact it is really the only major thing in Batalha. There is a nice hotel Villa Batalha and some nice restaurants, but without the monastery there is little to entice visitors. You cannot miss the monastery as it towers over the town and is a great landmark to find your way around.

The building took over 100 years to build starting in 1336 and represented the commemoration of a battle. An earthquake in 1775 did some damage and pillaging Napoleonic soldiers did rather more in 1811 but the restoration began in 1840 and was added to UNESCO world heritage sites in 1983. To view all the various segments takes around 2 hours and some degree of internal sat-nav. The Portuguese are not recognised for their signage skills and the first difficulty one has is finding the way in. The second one is to work out that although entrance to the main Nave is free, to get into all the interesting parts costs a mere 6 euros, but no-one actually tells you this. The ticket desk is in fact just that, a desk in the corner. The interior is beautiful. There are many tombs and chapels and there is little point me detailing these as Wikipaedia does a wonderful job. I will only focus on the curious architecture around the monastery. Roads seem unfinished. Piles of sand seem randomly deposited on the road blocking the way for example to the only hotel in the town. The town has great sports complexes, football grounds, swimming pools and even an athletic track. What seemed missing was people. The place other than a few dozen tourists was empty. Cafes and restaurants all with nice smelling foods were essentially empty. Maybe the rain did not help. This is a place worth visiting. A night in the Hotel Villa Batalha. A dinner in a restaurant . A 2 hour visit to the monastery and maybe some coffee and people watching in the squares. I like this place. Even the graffiti is worth looking at.