Portuguese Romanesque architecture

Portuguese Romanesque architecture is the regional form the broader European Romanesque style took in Portugal, introduced between the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth, first in the northern Minho and Douro regions before spreading south toward Coimbra and beyond. Shaped by the military conditions of the Reconquista, Portuguese Romanesque buildings have a notably fortress-like character, with thick walls, narrow openings, crenellations and little ornament beyond their portals and windows, while interiors typically use barrel vaulting, arches and capitals carved with vegetative or figurative motifs. Major Romanesque cathedrals, including those at Braga, Porto, Viseu, Coimbra and Lisbon, were built or rebuilt during the reign of King Afonso Henriques from 1139 to 1185, with the reconstruction of Braga Cathedral beginning in the 1070s, and the round church at the Convent of Christ in Tomar, raised by the Grand Master Gualdim Pais, was completed around 1180.