| Page Views: 118 Last Visit to Alcobaça: October, 2006 | Alcobaca by evilprebil - last update: Oct 11, 2006 |
A short stop, but worth it. When in Alcobaca, we only stopped at the abbey church of the former Cisterian monastery. It is the largest in Portugal, which is immediately evident once you step inside Founded in 1153 it remained occupied by the cisterian order until all religious orders were expelled from Portugal in 1834. It is modelled after the original in France. |
A twisted love story... Perhaps the real reason Alcobaca draws so much attention is the story of the two lovers that have tombs in the church, Dom Pedro and Dona Ines de Castro. The story goes that Ines was the love of Pedro's life, but his father forbade the union based on her family ties. She was a member of the Castro family who were Galician and were very aggressive in regards to power. Therefore a union between the two could result in Spanish power over the Portuguese and Pedro's father Afonso IV. Pedro was married to the Infanta Costanza who passed away. Pedro then married Ines in secret. |
Afonso had Ines murdered. After he passed away and Pedro took the throne, he also took his vengeance. Apparently he had Ines' murderers hunted down and he personally ripped out their hearts (and I've heard eaten them too..ew!). Then he revealed that he was in fact married to Ines and exhumed her corpse. In a final act of his sickened love for Ines, he crowned her queen and made the court kiss her decomposed hand. Now they lie facing each other so that when the judgement day occurs they can look at each other before anything else. |
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