"Tomar" a Tomar Travel Page by haiamisa

Our original plan had been to stay a night at Tomar, but instead we only visited it for few hours before continuing to Leira where we were to spend that night on 23rd of September. We had left Aveiro in the morning and driven along A1 and from there turned to IC8 and finally to N110 to Tomar. We were very excited as we had planned to see the medieval synagogue already at home and that was our main reason to visit Tomar. We heard about the town and the synagogue also from Csutiluca at Evora -she arrived to Evora ,where we met again,from Tomar- so we knew that it would be definitely worth a visit.
Tomar is an attractive town and well worth a couple of days of exploration. You should stay a night or two. The town is split in two by the Rio Naboa, the old quarters beng on the west bank. The old quarters preserve much of their traditional charm with whitewashed terraced cottages lining narrow cobbled streets.

In the old town inside the walls there is an excellently preserved 15th century synagogue, now the Museu Luso-Hebreico Abraham Zacuto, named after the Spanish astronomer, Abraham Zacuto who prepared navigational aids for Vasco da Gama. The museum is particularly interesting in a town dominated for so long by crusading Defenders of the Faith, and its stark interior, with plain vaults supported by four slender columns, houses a collection of 13th to 14th century Hebraic inscriptions. In 1496 Dom Manuel followed the example of the Reis Catolicos (Catholic Kings) of Spain and ordered the conversion or expulsion of all Portuguese Jews. The synagogue at Tomar was one of the very few to survive so far in the south -there is another at Castelo de Vide in the Alentejo Many Jews fled northwards, especially to Tras-os Montes where Inquisitional supervision was less hawk-eyed.