Capela do Fundador

The church at the monastery of Batalha was very large. In fact, it appeared to be much taller than it was from the outside, probably an optical illusion because of the narrowness of the building. There were beautiful stained glass windows here which illuminate the insides of the church. This is not to say that the church was bright inside. In fact, it was still rather dark since the light from the outside only reaches the upper parts of the church. There wasn’t much to see about the church so I started to explore the other parts of the church. It is typical that churches of this size would have small chapels around it. The monastery is no exception however, the chapel here is much larger than ones I have seen elsewhere.

The Capela do Fundador or the Founder’s Chapel is a chapel built in honor of the one who commissioned the building of the monastery. King John I of Portugal is credited with winning the secessionist war from Castile which is part of modern day Spain. Because of this victory, King John I vowed to build a monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He didn’t see the monastery until completion as the construction went on through six more Portuguese kings. King John I is buried here in the chapel with his wife Philippa of Lancaster. It was interesting to know how these political marriages were ongoing even back then. In particular, I was surprised to know that the wife is from England, although not that far away from Portugal, was still quite some distance away. I would have expected someone from a nearby country probably of shared language. The chapel itself was elaborately designed. The main feature of this chapel is the similarly elaborately designed tomb which is shared by both King John I and Philippa.

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