Tomar,

In the image of other consecrated cities, such as Rome, Constantinople or even Lisbon, it is associated with seven hills (Mata dos Sete Montes), stage of the Templars’ initiatory conclaves and alleged refuge for its enigmatic treasure.

Such a sacredness, sanctioned by geomorphology, was populated by built elements, which enhanced it as the imaginal reflection of the theopic pole jointly venerated by Jews, Christians and Muslims:

The Holy City of Jerusalem!

The Monument of Mafra

At the same time, it presents itself as an immense anthology of plastic arts and an enigma.

An indecipherable puzzle, precisely because when it happens to define the purpose of D. John V, there are few who do not fall into the temptation to say that all that the sovereign had in mind was an insatiable thirst for ostentation, or that the exuberant sumptuary of which if he did Maecenas, it served only that purpose.

Poor explanation that devoid of meaning the rhetoric of the sacralized power that impregnated it.

However, once the lesson of Classical Antiquity and its mythical time is adopted, absolute monarchs inheriting from Romanity, lack the corresponding mythical space: the capital city, whose ultimate meaning, assumed as a state secret and religious mystery, only to the King is given to reveal!

Disregard the tradition that guarantees that the Monument of Mafra was conceived as a replica of the Celestial Jerusalem destined to become Rome one day?

Here’s what this itinerary aims to clarify!