Altar Area of the Church at the Monastery of Alcobaça
I think I was at the tail end of my visit to the Monastery of Alcobaça. I was back in the church where I started but there is still stuff to see here. I was very impressed with the royal tombs which are on display here. There is also a love story behind these two tombs and it has been serialized in telenovelas on television. While the two tombs are probably the main attraction here at the transcept of the church. The altar area is usually the main attraction of a church. I happened to be passing by the altar area and I decided to have a look.
Manuelline Design Doorway at the Monastery of Alcobaça
Like much of the church, this is very gothic in design. The walls here are very high in typical gothic style. Windows near the top let the light in. It would have been especially nice had there been stained glass windows here but it seems that there aren’t any. Although I do not have any information about this, I think there used to be since a monastery and church of this stature would surely have stained glass windows. Perhaps they have already been replaced with the ones on display now. The altar itself is very bare. Just a simple table and nothing much. I would like to believe that there are still services being conducted here since there are still seats where the priest would be sitting as well as microphones. Having said that, it still challenging to the imagination that there are services here since the rest of the church is so bare.
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