Monastery of Leça do Balio, Portugal. Knights Hospitaller Order master house and headquarters. The original church and monastery was built during the X century under the patronage of Lucídio Vimaranes, 2nd Count of Portucale. This monastery is refered in several documents throughout the XI century: a chart from the year 1003 AD describes the monastery lands donation to D.Tructesindo Osores and his wife Dona Unisca Mendes. In the year of 1021 AD was left to their sons. In 1094 was donated to the Bishop of Coimbra by D.Raimundo of Burgundy. In the second half of the XII century, D.Afonso Henriques gave the lands to the Knights Hospitallers, where they installed its Order headquarters in Portugal. Since the Hospitallers divided its lands into bailiwicks, the name of the region came from those areas under jurisdiction of a bailiff: Leça do Balio (ou Bailio). Under the Knights Hospitaller, the monastery was increased with new military style constructions, mainly its solid crenelated tower (end of the XII, early XIII centuries). The current facade was added with Gothic elements in the XIV century under the authority of the Orders Prior Estevão Vasques Pimentel between 1330 and 1336.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:08:29 +0000
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