Charola do Convento de Cristo em Tomar, Portugal | Round Church from the Convent of Christ of Tomar, Portugal
Initially located within the walled area of the Castle of Tomar, the construction of the church charola (meaning, ambulatory), dates back to the origin of the castle (c. 1160) and is closely linked to the beginnings of the kingdom of Portugal and to the Order of the Knights Templar (later the Order of Christ), having been interiorly reconfigured in the 16th century. It served as the private oratory of the Knights Templar and later would become the main chapel of the church built during the reign of King Manuel I. Thus, its typology was similar to the byzantine churches which integrated the Romanesque with the Crusades movement, and it also incorporates a later Manueline decoration and an important set of 16th-century paintings and sculptures.
Part II
i) View of the charola from the nave decorated with late-Gothic sculptures and mural painting, depicting the four evangelists (Left: St. Luke with the calf/ox and St. John with the eagle. Right: St. Mark with Lion, St. Matthew with the angel), and the Cross of the Order of Christ on top.
ii) Inside the charola ceiling with three monumental canopies in gothic style in gilded polychrome wood.
iii) Ambulatory with the Pieta del altar of Our Lady topped with a monumental canopy in the flamboyant gothic style.
iv) Mural paintings of St. Mark, the Evangelist (above the baroque-style pulpit), another unidentified saint (possibly St. Peter or Paul), and the Cross of Order of Christ, on the lateral wall of the "charola" entry.
