Viewed (and beautifully pictured by Briana) from the wrecked fortress on the hill over looking the town of Alcobaca, the Monestary is a well visited site housing the erie tombs (tombos) of King Pedro and (queen) Inez de Castro.

When Pedro was not yet king, he had a love affair and early marriage with a spanish noble lady, Inez de Castro. She was the lady in waiting for the woman intedned to be his wife and queen. After the secret marriage was discovered by the King, Pedro’s Father, He had Inez murdered.

Some time later, after Pedro had inhereted the kingdom of Portugal, he honoured his former wife by digging her fetid corpse free of the earth, enthroned her and saw her crowned as queen. To seal the status of his (late) bride, before she was reentombed, all members of the royal court were compelled to kis the decomposed hand of the dead queen.

The tombs face eachother across the trancepts of the monestary in Alcobaca as if to be together intombed in stone for eternity.

Sweet

Flickr Photo Download: Alcobaca

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