Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LOVE, POLITICS & REVENGE
As moving as Romeo and Juliet - and far more gruesome - is the tragic story of Dom Pedro. Son of the king,
Dom Afonso IV, Pedro fell madly in love with his wife's Galician lady-in-waiting, Dona Inês de Castro, with
whom he had several children. Even after the death of Pedro's wife, his father forbade Pedro from marrying Inês,
wary of her Spanish family's potential influence. Suspicious nobles continued to pressure Dom Afonso IV until
finally he sanctioned Inês' murder in 1355, unaware that the two lovers had already secretly married.
Two years later, when Pedro succeeded to the throne, he exacted his revenge by ripping out and eating the
hearts of Inês' murderers. He then exhumed and crowned her body, and ordered the court to pay homage to his
dead queen by kissing her decomposing hand.
The couple are buried in elaborate tombs in the Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça. Inês' tomb rests, not on
lions but on the animal-like figures of the men that assassinated her.
Getting There & Away
BUS
Rodotejo ( www.rodotejo.pt ) and Rede Expressos ( www.rede-expressos.pt ) serve the following destina-
tions several times daily from Nazaré's bus station, a couple of blocks in from the ocean:
Alcobaça (€2.20, 20 minutes), Leiria (express/local €6.80/3.80, 40/60 minutes), Lisbon
(€11, 1¾ hours) and Peniche (€9.80, 70 minutes).
TOP OF CHAPTER
Alcobaça
POP 17,800
Only 100km north of Lisbon, the little town of Alcobaça has a charming if touristed
centre with a little river and bijou bridges. All however yields centre stage to the magnifi-
cent 12th-century Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça, one of Portugal's memorable
Unesco World Heritage sites.
Sights
Mosteiro de Santa
Maria de Alcobaça
( 262 505 126; www.mosteiroalcobaca.pt ; church free, monastery adult/child €6/free, with Tomar and Batalha €15;
9am-7pm Apr-Sep, 9am-5pm Oct-Mar) One of Iberia's great monasteries utterly dominates the
town of Alcobaça. Hiding behind the imposing baroque facade lies a high, austere, monk-
MONASTERY
 
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