CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 428 km round trip from Algés - roughly 5 h 52 in the saddle. The stops in between: Royal Building of Mafra - Palace, Monastery of Alcobaça, Convent of Christ in Tomar and back through Monastery of Alcobaça. The line favours views over speed.
This part of the ride is 42 km of Monastery of the Hieronymites → Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
The Hieronymites were a monastic order that followed Saint Jerome, and King Manuel I gave them a very grand home. He ordered the monastery built on the riverbank at Belém in 1501, on the site of a small chapel founded by Henry the Navigator, to serve as a royal pantheon and a place where monks would pray for sailors and for the king's soul, and it took most of a century to complete. The architects João de Castilho and Diogo de Boitaca worked in the Manueline style, and the south portal, a mass of carved saints and canopies, and the cloister, with its twisting columns and nautical motifs, are among the finest pieces of late Gothic in Europe.
Read the complete Monastery of the Hieronymites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of the Hieronymites is where the day begins. Next is Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
King João V of Portugal had a great deal of Brazilian gold and a vow to keep, and the result is the Royal Building of Mafra, a palace, basilica and monastery so large that it seems to belong to a different scale of town altogether. Construction began in 1717, reportedly in thanks for the birth of an heir, and the project absorbed enormous resources and tens of thousands of workers. The facade stretches for some two hundred and twenty metres, with the basilica in the centre and the royal apartments in the wings, the king's at one end and the queen's at the other, a long walk apart.
Read the complete Royal Building of Mafra - Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Building of Mafra - Palace comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastery of Alcobaça.
In 1153, Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, gave a vast estate to the Cistercian monks of Bernard of Clairvaux, and they built here one of the greatest monasteries of medieval Europe. The church of Alcobaça, with its long, soaring nave of pale stone, is austere and beautiful in the Cistercian manner, and the cloisters, dormitory, chapter house and refectory survive almost intact. The kitchen is enormous, with a huge chimney and a stream diverted through it so the monks could catch fish directly. UNESCO listed the monastery in 1989. But the main reason most visitors come is a love story.
Read the complete Monastery of Alcobaça write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 149 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastery of Alcobaça. Next is Convent of Christ in Tomar.
The Knights Templar chose the hill above Tomar in the twelfth century, building a castle to defend the new kingdom of Portugal against the Moors, and at its heart they raised a round church, the Charola, modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. When the Templars were suppressed in the fourteenth century, the Portuguese king transferred their property to a new order, the Order of Christ, which went on to finance much of Portugal's maritime expansion; Henry the Navigator was its governor. Over the centuries, the order added cloisters, chapels and dormitories, and the Convent of Christ became one of the great monuments of Portugal, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1983.
Read the complete Convent of Christ in Tomar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Convent of Christ in Tomar, about halfway. Next is back through Monastery of Alcobaça.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of Alcobaça write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monastery of Alcobaça sits at 273 km, about halfway. Next is back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Building of Mafra - Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace comes up about 383 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastery of the Hieronymites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of the Hieronymites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of the Hieronymites closes the day.
Monastery of the Hieronymites → Royal Building of Mafra - Palace is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Royal Building of Mafra - Palace → Monastery of Alcobaça is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Monastery of Alcobaça → Convent of Christ in Tomar is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Convent of Christ in Tomar → back through Monastery of Alcobaça is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastery of Alcobaça → back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace → Monastery of the Hieronymites is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.