We had been recommended to visit Tomar by several different people. We are so glad we did.
The town is small and quaint with a lovely church and plaza.
The reason most visitors come to Tomar is to visit the Convento de Cristo which was the home of the Kinights Templar in the late 12th century.
Tomar is definitely one of Portugal’s historical jewels and was the last Templar town to be commissioned for construction.
We walked up to the Convento de Cristo and as soon as we turned the corner we were both surprised at the magnificent sight in front of us.
The convent and castle complex was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
The inside was just as magnificent as the external.
We spent a good few hours wandering around. We would have liked to walked around the city walls but unfortunately the weather wasn’t brilliant and a mixture of sunshine and showers.
We headed back into the town to visit the 2nd most popular tourist attraction, The Matchbox Museum.
The matchbox Museum is free to enter and was started by a private collector when he first visited England for the Queens Jubilee in 1953.
The collection now has over 40,000 matchboxes on display.
We spent most of our time looking at the English matchboxes and trying to see who could remember the most.
It probably sounds quite geeky but the Matchbox Museum was quite interesting and we whiled away an hour before heading back to our free Aire.
On the outskirts of Tomar you can stop at the Pegoes Aqueduct which was built in the 16th century to bring water to the Convento de Cristo. This amazing structure is nearly 6 km long and at the highest point it is 30 metres high.
We enjoyed Tomar, it was a great place to visit.
