Sunlight filtered through stained glass in ancient Gothic windows throws multicoloured spears on to plain early Gothic stonework in the church of the Mosteiro de Santa Maria, the former Cistercian monastery founded by King Afonso I in 1153 at Alcobaça, Centro, Portugal.
Alcobaça, Centro, Portugal: sunlight filtering through soaring stained glass windows projects diagonal spears of colour on austere early Gothic stonework inside the church of the Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça, the former Cistercian monastery founded in 1153 by Afonso I, the first King of Portugal. Afonso Henriques built the church to commemorate a victory over the Moors in 1147 and it then evolved into the Monastery of Alcobaça, one of the most magnificent Gothic monuments in Portugal. The Mosteiro played an important role in shaping Portuguese culture over several centuries. In 1269, its monks were the first to give public lessons to their flock and they later produced the first authoritative history of their country. The last monks left in 1834 when Portugal's monasteries were dissolved and the entire monastic complex is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The medieval church, still the largest in Portugal, is the burial place of many Portuguese monarchs and is best known for the ornate Gothic tombs, facing each other across a transept, of the 14th century ruler Peter or Pedro I and his mistress, Inês de Castro, murdered in 1355 on the orders of her father, King Afonso IV.
Size: 4912px × 7360px
Location: Mosteiro de Santa Maria, Alcobaça, Centro, Portugal.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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