ALCOBAÇA

Alcobaça  is a town in the district of Leiria that owes its fame and development to the Monastery or Royal Abbey of Santa Maria, founded in 1153 by the Cistercian Order, and which began to be built in 1178, in land donated to Friar Bernardo de Claraval, founder of the Cistercian Order, by the 1st king of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, in fulfillment of a vow made after the Christian Reconquest of Santarém, which was in the possession of the Moors until 1147.

The Monastery had a vast domain, which was also known as "coutos" of Alcobaça, where the Cistercian Order systematized the settlement, organizing villages and farms and dynamizing agriculture, introducing new techniques and agricultural products, characteristics that lasted in time and are still being today this region is one of the main fruit producers in Portugal.

Built on the model of the Abbey of Claraval, mother house of the Cistercian Order in France, the Monastery of Alcobaça is a beautiful monument classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.