There are towns in Portugal that are pretty, towns that are historic, and then there is Tomar. This is where the Knights Templar built their headquarters, where the red cross that would sail on Portugal's ships of discovery was born, and where the monastery on the hill still feels more fortress than place of worship. Few towns this size carry this much history this well.

Tomar sits 140km north of Lisbon, small enough to walk across in twenty minutes but with a charm that makes you want to stay longer. The hilltop Convento de Cristo is the reason most people come, and rightly so, but the town below is worth your time too. A beautiful main square, a riverside park, a Templar church, and a matchbox museum that is considerably more entertaining than it sounds.

Tomar also makes a fine base for exploring the wider region, with Castelo de Almourol, the Mira de Aire caves, the vast Castelo do Bode lake, Fátima and the hilltop castle town of Ourém all within easy reach.

I have been exploring Portugal since 2001 and, together with my Portuguese wife, regularly head to Tomar, a town we have come to know in every season. This guide will help you get the best from Tomar and the countryside that surrounds it.
Related articles: A day trip to Tomar

These are the sights that make Tomar worth the journey, whether you are here for a day or longer. Each one is covered in full later in the guide.

Convento de Cristo

The reason you come to Tomar, and it will not disappoint. What began as the Knights Templar headquarters in 1160 grew over five centuries into one of Portugal's most extraordinary religious complexes, its eight cloisters spanning Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline and Renaissance. The Manueline Chapter House Window is the centrepiece, a wall of carved limestone so intricate and ambitious - Convento de Cristo

Castelo de Tomar

The castle came first. Gualdim Pais built this fortress in 1160, and in 1190 it held against a Moorish siege, its design sharpened by what the Templars had learned in the Crusades. Walk the walls today and you can still read the intention of the place, to make attack feel futile.

Charola (Round Church)

Built in the 12th century so knights could hear mass without dismounting, its circular form borrowed from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Four centuries later the Manueline embellishment began, and the original austere design lost beneath it. Gilt and colour now press in from almost every surface, turning a soldier's chapel into one of Portugal's most visually consuming interiors.

Igreja de São João Baptista

Tomar's parish church has stood on Republic Square since the 15th century. The Manueline portal is a riot of carved creatures and natural motifs, thrown into sharp relief against the whitewashed exterior. Rising above is an octagonal bell tower capped with a pyramid-shaped spire. Inside, six Renaissance panels by master Gregório Lopes line the walls, and the limestone pulpit is carved with the delicacy of a silversmith.

Igreja de Santa Maria dos Olivais

The Templars' pantheon, declared by the Pope in 1455 as Mother Church for all territories Portugal would ever discover. The Gothic exterior is sober and deliberate, its rose window concealing a pentagram. Inside lie the tombs of the Templar masters, including founder Gualdim Pais. Detached from the main church, the clock tower began as a Templar watchtower and still carries itself like one.

Museu dos Fósforos

The world's largest matchbox collection, housed in the cloisters of the Convento de São Francisco, is one of Tomar's most unlikely treasures. Over 43,000 pieces from 120 countries fill seven rooms, organised by country, tracing a visual map of 20th-century global history through commercial art, from Soviet propaganda to pre-revolutionary China. On my first visit I went in expecting to spend twenty minutes and stayed for over an hour. It sits close to the bus and train stations, making it an easy first or last stop.

Mata Nacional dos Sete Montes
Once the convent's walled cultivation grounds, where monks grew herbs, olives and grapes. Today 39 hectares of forest and walking trails occupy the same ground, and the fortress walls of the Convento de Cristo loom through the trees in ways most visitors never see. The centrepiece is the Charolinha, a miniature replica of the Charola, sitting at the centre of a circular stone water tank deep in the woods. I find this a peaceful park to stroll around when I have a longer stay in Tomar.

Sinagoga de Tomar

This is Portugal's best-preserved medieval synagogue, built in the mid-15th century by a community that would be expelled from Portugal in 1496. The four columns represent the matriarchs of Israel, Gothic vaulting draws the eye upward, and four clay jars embedded in the corners were engineered to carry prayers through the space.

How about a small group tour?
If you would rather leave the planning to someone else, a small group tour is worth considering. A good guide changes the experience at a place like Tomar, where so much of what you are looking at only makes sense with context. I have used and recommended GetYourGuide tours for seven years.
The options below are among their highest rated for this region, and ones I am comfortable recommending.

 

Below is an interactive map highlighting the major tourist attractions of Tomar (Note: Zoom in or out to see all markers.)

Legend 1) Convento de Cristo 2) Castelo de Tomar 3) Claustro dos Corvos 4) Charola (Round Church) 5) Igreja de São João Baptista 6) Sinagoga de Tomar 7) Mata Nacional dos Sete Montes 8) Câmara Municipal 9) Igreja de Santa Maria dos Olivais 10) Ermida de Nossa Senhora da Conceição 11) Museu dos Fósforos 12) Mouchão Parque 13) Igreja do Convento de São Francisco 14) Capela de Santa Iria 15) Ponte Velha (Old Bridge) 16) Núcleo de Arte Contemporânea

If you have time in your holiday, I always suggest spending at least a night in Tomar, with one day given to the town and one day to the surrounding region. Some of my favourite sights of the Tomar region are given below, however you will need a car to get the most out of the region as public transport is very limited.

Castelo de Almourol
Rising from a granite islet in the Tagus River, this 12th-century Templar fortress is accessible only by boat, a short crossing that adds to the sense of arrival. Built by Gualdim Pais in 1171, the same man who founded Tomar's castle, it served as a frontier garrison on the edge of Moorish territory. Ten towers ring the walls, the keep rises from the centre, and almost nothing has been added or altered since. Few castles in Portugal feel this untouched.

Fátima
One of Catholicism's most significant pilgrimage sites, where three shepherd children saw the Virgin Mary six times between May and October 1917. The apparitions drew scepticism and then millions: today the sanctuary complex receives around six million visitors a year. The original Chapel of Apparitions marks the exact spot, while the neoclassical Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and the vast modern Basilica of the Holy Trinity face each other across a square larger than St Peter's in Rome - Fatima guide

Aqueduto dos Pegões
Built between 1593 and 1613 to carry water from springs six kilometres away to the Convento de Cristo, this double-tiered aqueduct reaches 30 metres at its highest point and crosses a deep valley on 180 arches. It is possible to walk sections of the upper level, which puts the engineering into bodily perspective in a way that looking up from below does not.

Castelo de Ourém
The hilltop silhouette is the first thing, twin towers connected by a Gothic bridge visible from the valley below. What stands today is largely the work of Dom Afonso, Count of Ourém, who rebuilt the fortress as a noble palace in the 15th century, adding Gothic windows and a Renaissance cistern to what had been a purely military structure. The village of Ourém clusters at the base of the hill, largely unchanged and largely unvisited.

Caves
The limestone hills west of Tomar conceal two spectacular cave networks: Grutas de Mira de Aire and Grutas da Moeda.
Grutas de Mira de Aire Portugal's largest cave system descends more than 100 metres through cathedral-sized chambers of stalactites, stalagmites and crystalline formations. The tour ends in a large cavern with an illuminated water feature.
Grutas da Moeda Smaller and quieter than Mira de Aire, named after a cache of coins reportedly found here. The chambers are more intimate, the formations more delicate, and the crowds generally thinner. If you only have time for one, Mira de Aire is considered the better and more famous.

Albufeira do Castelo do Bode
Built in the 1950s by damming the Zêzere River, the reservoir stretches 60 kilometres through pine-forested valleys, its arms reaching into side valleys that give it the feel of a coastline rather than an inland lake. The water is clean and calm, the river beaches scattered along the shoreline are rarely crowded, and the surrounding forest keeps the temperature bearable even in July and August.

Pegadas de Dinossáurios de Ourém
Discovered in 1994 when a local explorer noticed unusual patterns in the floor of an active limestone quarry, this is one of the most significant dinosaur track sites in the world. The longest single trackway stretches 147 metres across an exposed limestone slab, pressed into the rock 175 million years ago when this was a low-lying coastal lagoon. More than twenty distinct trackways are preserved, some individual prints large enough to stand in. Many track a single animal moving alone across the stone

Praia Fluvial da Aldeia do Mato
A river beach on the Castelo do Bode reservoir, backed by pine forest and equipped with a floating platform of enclosed pools that makes it genuinely safe for children. Calmer and less visited than the beaches closer to Tomar, it rewards the extra few kilometres of driving.

Wine tourism

Herdade dos Templários
A modern estate producing some of the better known Tejo wines, a short drive from Tomar and well set up for visitors. Guided tours take in the vineyards and cellars, ending with a structured tasting of the portfolio. The estate is locally known as Quinta do Cavalinho, which is what older residents will call it if you ask for directions. www.herdadedostemplarios.pt

Quinta Vale do Armo
A boutique winery in the hills near Sardoal, about 25 minutes from Tomar, producing wines from indigenous grape varieties using a mix of traditional and modern methods. The setting is quiet and the tastings unhurried. Worth the drive if you want something less commercial than the larger estates. valedoarmo.com

Quinta Casal das Freiras
The name means Estate of the Nuns, a reference to its history supplying wine to the local convents. The family has been working the same land since the 17th century, and the focus remains on local varieties and traditional methods. One of the more authentic visits in the region. casaldasfreiras.pt

Tomar region map
The map below shows the sights of the Tomar region:

Legend 1) Castelo de Almourol (Castle) 2) Basílica de Nossa Senhora de Fátima 3) Aqueduto dos Pegões (aquaduct) 4) Castelo de Ourém (Castle) 5) Grutas da Moeda (caves) 6) Albufeira do Castelo do Bode (Reservoir) 7) Pegadas de Dinossáurios de Ourém (Dinosaur trail) 8) Casa da Lúcia - Fatima 9) Museu de Cera - Fatima 10) Praia Fluvial do Agroal (river beach) 11) Bar das Caraíbas (swimming area) 12) Óbidos 13) Grutas de Mira de Aire (Caves) 14) Salinas de Rio Maior 15) Mosteiro de Alcobaça 16) Mosteiro da Batalha 17) Grutas de Santo António 18) São Martinho do Porto 19) Nazaré
Wineries: 20) Herdade dos Templários (Quinta do Cavalinho) 21) Quinta Vale do Armo 22) Quinta Casal das Freiras

The majestic Convento de Cristo stands high above Tomar and is one of Portugal's finest historical monuments. This architectural masterpiece spans eight centuries of Portuguese history, seamlessly blending military, religious, and artistic elements.

Founded in 1160 as a Templar stronghold, the complex initially served as a crucial defensive structure along the Christian-Muslim frontier. Its imposing medieval walls, crenellated battlements, and robust towers proved their worth during the successful defence against Moorish forces in 1190. The complex's most striking feature is the unique 16-sided Charola, a circular church that serves as its spiritual heart. This extraordinary rotunda, inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, reflects the Templars' connection to the Holy Land.

The castle walls that surround the Convento de Cristo

When the Templars were dissolved in 1312, the complex found new life as the headquarters of the Order of Christ under Prince Henry the Navigator's patronage. This period marked the beginning of significant architectural expansions, including the magnificent Manueline window – a masterpiece of Portuguese Late Gothic architecture that incorporates maritime motifs celebrating the Age of Discoveries.

The interior of the Charola showcases stunning 16th-century religious paintings and gilt decorations, while the complex's eight cloisters demonstrate various architectural styles from Gothic to Renaissance. The Chapter House's ornate Manueline portal serves as a testament to Portugal's golden age of exploration.

Visitors typically spend 1.5-2 hours exploring this architectural marvel, with an entrance fee of €10.

The inner courtyard of the Convento de Cristo

This unique museum houses the world’s largest collection of matchboxes and matchbook covers, with over 43,000 pieces gathered from over 120 countries. What started as Aquiles da Mota Lima's personal collection in 1953 has grown into a fascinating showcase of commercial art and social history.

These tiny artworks reflect changing artistic styles, advertising trends and social history through their elaborate designs, making this quirky museum an unexpected cultural treasure in Tomar.

The huge collection of match boxes in the Museu dos Fósforos

The picturesque Parque do Mouchão lies on the banks of the Nabão River, offering beautiful views across the weir and town. This tree-lined park is an ideal spot to rest during a day of sightseeing and is particularly popular with Portuguese families.

The park's centrepiece is an impressive wooden waterwheel, which has become its defining symbol. Though decorative today, it commemorates Tomar's historical reliance on water power for milling and other industries.

The Parque do Mouchão follows the banks of the Nabão river

The Igreja de Santa Maria do Olival is one of Portugal's most significant Gothic churches and served as the main church of the Knights Templar. It was the burial site for Templar knights, including their grand masters, making it a significant religious site for their order. The church is the final resting place of Gualdim Pais, the Templar Knight who founded Tomar.

The Santa Maria do Olival's western façade features a large rose window that influenced many others throughout Portugal, including the one at Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.

The church earned the nickname "Mother of All Templar Churches" as it functioned as the spiritual headquarters for Portugal's Templar activities. Inside, the three-nave interior leads to a main chapel containing medieval tombs of Templar masters, including Gualdim Pais, who founded Tomar in 1160.

The 14th-century bell tower, which locals still call the "Lighthouse of the Templars", stands apart from the main building and once guided travellers to the city.

The Praça da República is the main square of Tomar and is flanked some of the most important buildings of the town.

The impressive town hall stands at one end, while the Igreja de São João Baptista stands at the opposite end. At the center of the plaza stands a statue of Gualdim Pais, the Knights Templar master who founded Tomar in the 12th century.

The plaza is adorned with traditional Portuguese cobblestone pavement, featuring elegant black and white patterns in the calçada Portuguesa style, while a decorative 17th-century Renaissance fountain adds to its charm.

The pretty Praça da República is the heart of Tomar

The chapel is dedicated to Saint Iria (Saint Irene), a martyr from the 7th century. According to legend, she was a nun who met a tragic end due to her vow of chastity. The story goes that she was falsely accused and subsequently killed by being thrown into the Nabão River, which flows through Tomar. Her body is said to have been carried downstream until it was found near Santarém, where a shrine was later built in her honour.

The chapel stands on the bank of the Nabão River, near the Ponte Velha (Old Bridge), and is noted for its modest yet charming Gothic and Manueline architectural details.

The Sinagoga de Tomar, built in 1438, is one of the best-preserved medieval synagogues in Portugal. The plain limestone exterior gives way to a striking prayer hall supported by four elegant columns, which represent Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah - the matriarchs of Israel. Women would have worshipped from the upper gallery, while men gathered below beneath the impressive Gothic vaulting. The synagogue now houses a small Jewish museum that tells the story of Portugal's Jewish community, who flourished here until forced conversion in 1496.

While staying longer in Tomar, consider exploring these worthwhile attractions in the wider region:
São Martinho do Porto
A seaside town wrapped around a perfectly curved, shell-shaped bay. The calm, protected waters make this beach ideal for families, while the long boardwalk lined with restaurants provides a pleasant setting for evening strolls.

Nazaré
A fishing town turned surf mecca where traditional Portuguese culture meets world-record waves. The lower town offers a broad beach and excellent seafood restaurants, while the clifftop district of Sitio, reached by funicular, provides spectacular coastal views. The famous giant waves arrive between October and March.

Óbidos
A wonderfully preserved medieval town circled by ancient walls. Its maze of cobbled streets, lined with whitewashed houses and bright flowers, seems frozen in time. While popular with day-trippers, it's most enchanting in the early morning or late afternoon when the crowds thin.

Grutas de Mira de Aire
Portugal's most extensive cave system, which descends 180 meters underground. The hour-long guided tours take you past underground lakes and dramatic rock formations illuminated to highlight their natural beauty. A constant 17°C temperature makes these caves a refreshing escape on hot summer days.

Salinas de Rio Maior
These fascinating inland salt pans have been in continuous use since medieval times. The site's distinctive wooden structures and white salt mounds create an unusual landscape, while the traditional harvesting methods remain unchanged through centuries.

Mosteiro de Alcobaça
A UNESCO-listed monastery that houses Portugal's largest church. The austere Gothic architecture contrasts with elaborate touches like the massive medieval kitchen and the ornate tombs of Pedro and Inês - Portugal's own Romeo and Juliet. The monastery's scale and craftsmanship make it one of the country's most impressive religious buildings.

Mosteiro da Batalha
Another UNESCO World Heritage site that showcases the height of Gothic and Manueline architecture. Built to commemorate Portugal's victory at Aljubarrota in 1385, its intricate stonework and soaring spaces reflect the kingdom's power and wealth. The unfinished chapels provide a fascinating glimpse into medieval construction methods.

Grutas de Santo António
These limestone caves reveal a hidden world of stalactites, stalagmites, and underground pools. The 45-minute guided tours are fully accessible and well-lit, making it easy to appreciate the cave's natural sculptures. Like other caves in the region, they maintain a year-round temperature of 16-18°C.

Discover more of central Portugal with our guides