Things to do in Tomar

No. 1 of Best Things to Do in Santarem District

Convent of Christ

Located in Tomar, in the Santarém district of western Portugal, this attraction was built in the 12th century as a Catholic church. Originally the headquarters of the Knights Templar, the church symbolizes their conquests, and its blue tiled walls evoke its former glory. Following the disbanding of the Knights Templar in the 14th century, it became a Catholic church. The building, a blend of Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, and Renaissance architectural styles, boasts a complex architecture and expansive courtyards, making it a significant historical and cultural landmark in Portugal and designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.

River beach Agroal

Roda do parque do Mouchao

Almourol Castle

Almourol Castle is a historic, well-preserved medieval fortress whose grandeur and history draw many travelers and history enthusiasts. Perched on a small hill, the castle boasts a prime location. Visitors can follow a winding path to the castle, enjoying beautiful countryside views along the way. The castle's high walls and towers remain well-preserved. From the viewing platform, visitors can overlook the entire town and surrounding fields, enjoying spectacular vistas. Inside, multiple exhibition halls showcase a wealth of historical artifacts and scenes of medieval life. Visitors can view ancient weapons, armor, and period furniture and decor, all of which vividly recreate life in the Middle Ages. The castle also houses a small museum detailing its history and architectural features. Almourol Castle also regularly hosts various events, such as medieval festivals, concerts, and exhibitions, which not only enrich the visitor experience but also boost local tourism.

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima is located in the Santarém region in central Portugal and is an important Catholic pilgrimage site. The site gradually formed a religious complex due to a religious event witnessed by three shepherds in the early 20th century. The core area includes an open-air square and religious buildings. The square is characterized by geometric limestone paving. In the center stands the neoclassical cathedral. The adjacent Chapel of Apparition retains the original stone structure, marking the legendary location of the apparition of the Virgin. Pilgrimage activities include traditional forms such as kneeling rituals and candlelight parades. Believers often complete religious practices along specific routes. The attached religious museum collects objects donated by believers of all generations, reflecting the expression of faith in different periods. As a modern religious activity center, its building complex combines traditional religious elements with modern functional design, and has both religious rituals and cultural heritage protection functions, providing researchers with samples for observing contemporary religious practices.

Aqueduto do Convento de Cristo - Troço Pegões Altos

Church Santa Maria do Olival

No. 1 of Best Things to Do in Portugal

Pena Park

Pena Park is a vast royal woodland garden that embraces the Pena Palace, spreading across the heights of the Sintra hills. Created in the mid-nineteenth century by King Ferdinand II of Portugal alongside the palace, it covers more than two hundred hectares of rolling terrain and deep forest. Paths crisscross the grounds like a maze, linking stone bridges, grottoes, fountains, and trellised pavilions; combined with the mist that often hangs over the hills, wandering here feels much like stepping into a fairy-tale forest. Looking down from one side of the palace, the whole expanse of greenery spreads across the slopes like a sea, with the red-and-yellow palace towers as the focal point of the scene. The garden has a distinctly Romantic character: the king ordered trees brought in from distant continents, and North American redwoods, Chinese ginkgos, Japanese cedars, and magnolias can all be seen here. In the ravine known as the "Queen's Fern Garden," groves of tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand grow along the stream in dense green profusion. On the lakes of the Lake Valley stand duck houses shaped like castles, one of them modeled after the Moorish Castle; in the woods stands a knight-like "Warrior Statue" by the sculptor Rusconi; and on the western side of the park, the "Countess's Chalet" is a Swiss mountain chalet style building, its exterior painted with wood-grain patterns and trimmed with cork, surrounded by camellias and azaleas and set among giant granite boulders—a retreat the king built for his second wife, a former opera singer. Visiting tips: the park is large, with many slopes and dense branching paths, so wear comfortable shoes and allow most of a day to stroll at leisure; don't just rush back and forth to the palace—follow the paths deeper into the woods, where the Lake Valley, the Fern Garden, and the Countess's Chalet are often quieter and more rewarding to explore, and good for photos too; when the camellias bloom in winter, the park's colors are especially rich.

No. 1 of Night Attractions in Portugal

National Palace of Pena

The National Palace of Pena is a royal retreat whose dazzling, eccentric, and ornate silhouette looks like a pleasure-palace castle. The palace itself is a medley of architectural styles, combining Gothic, Renaissance, Moorish, and Manueline (the style of the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal) elements, and it was the brainchild of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal in the nineteenth century. It is not only a Portuguese national monument but also one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, standing on a hilltop in the parish of São Pedro de Penaferrim in the town of Sintra near Lisbon, and on clear days it is clearly visible from the city of Lisbon itself. In 1995, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site as part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra. It is now frequently used for state functions by the Portuguese president and other government officials. In the Middle Ages, this site was merely a small chapel of Our Lady. In 1493, King John II and his wife visited, and his successor, Manuel I, built a monastery, which fell into ruins after the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755; Ferdinand II bought the ruins and the surrounding hillside and commissioned the German engineer Eschwege to design a building blending Gothic, Manueline, Moorish, and Renaissance elements, with construction beginning in 1842 and completed around 1854, making it one of the representative works of European Romantic palace architecture.

Seven Hills National Forest