Lavabo

The cloister at the monastery of Batalha was extremely impressive. The arches and pillars forming the cloister were elaborately designed, making use of gothic and Manueline styles. That resulted in one of the most impressive cloisters I have ever seen. The sun was shining through the arches and it gives wonderful light to the cloister. There are also screens here which are hand-carved in Manueline style which let some of the list through. It was difficult to imagine that this was all done with stone. It can imagine the difficulty of making a single piece of this monastery but to be able to form a complete structure is truly mind-boggling.

One of the interesting features of the Royal Cloister in the monastery is the presence of a stone-carved lavabo. I always thought the word meant “sink”. I probably wasn’t that far from the truth. A lavabo in a monastery is used by the monks to wash. Looking at the thing, it certainly looks more like a fountain rather than a washing basin. There were three levels to the lavabo, each one smaller and higher than the other. It was a refreshing sight to see since it was so dry that day and I couldn’t help but dip my hands into the water. Hopefully, it is still clean!

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