Alcobaça is situated in the valleys of the Alcoa and Baça rivers, which according to some writers named it. According to other interpretations it was the name of this locality of Arab origin that was divided to baptize both rivers.
Alcobaça owes its fame and development to the Monastery or Royal Abbey of Santa Maria, founded in 1153 by the Order of Cister, and which began to be built in 1178, on land donated to Friar Bernardo de Claraval, founder of the Order of Cister, by the 1st King of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, in fulfillment of a vow made after the Christian Reconquest of Santarém, which was in possession of the Moors until 1147.
Built on the model of the Claraval Abbey, the mother house of the Order of Cister in France, the Alcobaça Monastery is a beautiful monument classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
In this monastery are the tombs of D. Pedro and D. Inês de Castro. Rebuilt several times in various styles, from Gothic to Manueline, this monastery is one of the most beautiful monuments in the world.
Richly crafted in white stones, with carvings worthy of great Renaissance artists, the tombs are one of the most visited spots in the Alcobaça Monastery.
The carvings, of unknown author, tell passages of the tragedy, as we have seen before in this story, Inês is queen, but is killed, as the saying goes.
The municipality of Alcobaça has much more to offer. The ruins of its Medieval Castle are also worth visiting, as is the town of Kos with the Convent of Santa Maria de Cos, one of the country's largest Cistercian female convents, the Alcobaça Church of Mercy, cataloged as a National Monument, or Pataias Lagoon, which is a quiet and ideal place for a picnic with family or friends.
Friar Fernando Abaciato, following a testamentary disposition of D. Sancho II, sponsored the building of what would become one of the most important female monasteries of the Order of Cister, the Monastery of Santa Maria de Cos.
On the façade there is the portal dating from 1671 and the sculptures of the great figures of the Order of Cister Saint Benedict and Saint Bernard. The striking simplicity of the exterior is opposed to the dated interior of the first Portuguese Baroque. The decoration of the ceilings of the Church and the Sacristy is a unique case between the Cistercian abbeys of Portugal and Spain.
Pataias lagoon is the main wetland of the municipality of Alcobaça, constituting a biodiversity hotspot in the coastal pine forest. It is very close to the northern limit of the municipality of Alcobaça, more specifically in the parish of Pataias, located to the northwest of this village. The water mirror has a major axis of about 400m and a smaller axis of about 125m. The lagoon ends at a water line that extends a few kilometers to the north.
This water line is the only runoff, so its flow depends entirely on precipitation. The lagoon is part of a succession of wetlands that mark the Portuguese coast, and is located on one of the main migratory axes of waterfowl that cross mainland Portugal (Rio Minho, Ria de Aveiro, Baixo Mondego, Obidos Lagoon, Tagus Estuary, Sado Estuary and Santo André Lagoon), essential for the rest, shelter and feeding of wintering birds.
