Mosteiro de Alcobaça (Alcobaça Monastery, UNESCO)

Alcobaça Monastery was founded in 1153 by King Afonso Henriques as a gift to the Cistercian order following the reconquest of Santarém, and its church, completed in the early 13th century, is the largest in Portugal and one of the earliest and most complete examples of Gothic architecture in the country. The monastery is best known for the 14th-century tombs of King Pedro I and his murdered lover Inês de Castro, carved with intricate reliefs and famously positioned foot-to-foot so the couple would face each other on the day of resurrection. Beyond the church, the complex includes the vast Cistercian kitchen with its own diverted stream once used for washing food and, according to legend, live fish, along with the Cloister of Silence and a monumental refectory reflecting the order's disciplined communal life. Presentation moves chronologically from the austere 12th-century Cistercian church design through the elaborately carved royal tombs to the monastic support spaces added over subsequent centuries. Restoration efforts since the 20th century have preserved the Gothic proportions of the nave, among the tallest in Portugal, while later Baroque facade additions and sacristy remain intact as later layers of the building's long history.