Cistercian roots of Portugal in Tarouca

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Tarouca played an unusually important role in the Middle Ages, at the dawn of Portugal as a nation. It is first mentioned in writing in the 6th century, as one of the six parishes of the Diocese of Lamego, and in 1057 its castle was taken for good from the Moors by Ferdinand the Great, King of León. The birth of the kingdom is closely tied to the area: Portugal's first king is linked to the building of the Monastery of São João de Tarouca, and Egas Moniz was lord of the Honra de Dalvares, while his wife, Teresa Afonso, founded the Convent of Santa Maria de Salzedas. Work on São João de Tarouca, the first Cistercian monastery for monks in Portugal, began in 1140 or 1154. It was greatly enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries, including a colossal two-storey dormitory, and it holds the tomb of Pedro Afonso, Count of Barcelos, who died in 1354, in what the council describes as the largest granite sarcophagus in Portugal. After religious orders were abolished in 1834 the church became a parish church, while the monastery buildings were sold and used as a quarry until the early 20th century. Now a National Monument, its ruins were excavated between 1998 and 2007 and turned into a museum site, with an interpretation centre in the old monastic granary, the Casa da Tulha. In 1262 Afonso III gave Tarouca a charter under the name Castro-Rei, though the name Tarouca was back in use by 1364, and Manuel I granted a new charter in 1514. In 1710 João Gomes da Silva, 4th Count of Tarouca, represented Portugal at the Treaty of Utrecht. The municipality was abolished in 1896, restored on 13 January 1898, and Tarouca became a city on 9 December 2004.

The craft beer scene in Tarouca is still waiting to be discovered, so look at nearby places for craft beer bars and breweries.