Tomar alert--Convent of Christ closed May 23 to 27

I know that the ex-Templar Convento do Cristo is one of the most popular stops along the Portuguese caminho (Lisboa to Porto section), and that many pilgrims choose to take a rest day there, to see the sights.

Translation from one of the local papers today:

"The Convent of Christ, in Tomar, will be closed to the public from May 23 to 27, due to the shooting of the film production “Damsel”, with the assembly and preparation work of the scenarios conditioning access to some locations."

You may want to check with the Santarém tourist office en route; they should know since Tomar is, I think, within Santarém district.

The full story in Portuguese:

jungleboy said:

Wow. Money/Hollywood talks, I guess, but that will be a big shame for pilgrims/tourists who are there at that time, perhaps especially more so for tourists who make a special trip to Tomar just for the convent (easily the most impressive historical monument on the CP, in my view), only to find it closed.

Thanks for the heads up, though. Hopefully this news will travel up and down the grapevine so pilgrims can adjust their schedule and/or expectations.

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The town of Tomar actually has a very weird relationship with the Convent of Christ, which is a national historic site. I used to follow one of the local online papers from Tomar, though eventually it got so gossipy that I got fed up with it and quit reading it.

However, the definite impression that I got was that the town itself saw very little tourist revenue from the site, and the administration of the site really didn't speak to the Tomar Tourist Office at all--it seemed to operate in a bit of a vacuum. Until a couple of years ago, there was no local bus that went up the hill to the convent (for those who couldn't handle the walk). That has changed now.

As far as I could tell, none of the admission revenue or parking revenue, or gift shop revenue goes to the town at all; it all feeds into the national historic site program. Which I imagine sorely needs it.

But the sense in town was that they really didn't benefit much from having the Convent of Christ there at all, other than people perhaps stopping for lunch before or after visiting the castle. And they had no say in decision-making or programming for the site. Thus they probably also had no say about the closures for movie-making.

Sadly, the town doesn't really have too much in the way of other historic buildings. They have the synagogue in the old part of town that has been rebuilt, but it's really very small and only interesting to a fairly specialized group of visitors. Their big historic festival, the Tabuleiros festival, only happens every 4 years. And the town itself doesn't really have nice walks, or particularly impressive parks compared to other towns.

jungleboy said:

That's selling it a bit short!

There is the 15th-century church of St. John the Baptist on the main square, with Manueline features, and the 12th-century Templar church of Santa Maria dos Olivais.

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Very very true. I was really just meaning in the same order of significance as the Convent of Christ.

The two you illustrate are, indeed, very significant buildings.

And there also is the beautiful church with a great view on the way up to the Convent itself--the Ermida de Nossa Senora da Conceição




--and the lovely gardens of the convent, which I understand you now can access through a long-closed trail from the park just across from the Tourist office....the Mata Nacional dos Sete Montes. The gardens should still be accessible while the convent is briefly closed.