Description of the attraction
The tower and church de Manente are located in the town of Barcelos, which is the center of the municipality of the same name, which is part of the Braga district. The patron saint of this area is considered Saint Martin of Tours or, as he is also called, Martin the Merciful.
In Barcelos in ancient times, there was a monastery of St. Martin, from which, unfortunately, only the tower and the Church of de Manente have survived to this day. Information about the date of the construction of the temple has not been preserved, but there is an assumption that the monastery was built in the first half of the 10th century. The monastery was founded by Don Pedro Afonso Dorraes and his wife, Donna Gotinha Oeris. After their death, the monastery was taken care of by their daughter, Teresa Pires, who was married to the famous nobleman from the County of Condado Portucalence - Ramiro Aires. The county is the name of two fiefdoms that existed in 868-1139 on the territory of modern Portugal, and they were called Condado de Portucale and Condado Portucalence. The second county was larger in territory than the first, and was created in 1093 by Alfonso VI of Castile.
The monastery church was built in the Romanesque style, in some places there were even pre-Romanesque elements. On the wall of the church, you can see an inscription that dates back to 1117 and says that the master Gonçalo supervised the construction work. The portal of the church is decorated with three round arches, decorated with a pattern of geometric elements. The tower is square and once served as a watchtower. In 1915, both the church and the tower were declared a national monument of Portugal.
