Pousada Mosteiro do Crato

Pousadas are unique to Portugal. Pousadas de Portugal is a chain of luxury, traditional or historical hotels in Portugal. Formerly run by the Portuguese State, and now run by the Pestana Group, under contract. The Pousadas were envisioned and created in the early 1940s by António Ferro, head of the National Propaganda Secretariat and also a poet and playwright, who had the idea of creating hotels that were both rustic and genuinely Portuguese.

The Portuguese word pousada means "hostel" or "inn". In Portugal, the use of the word is registered as a trademark and reserved for the use of the Pousadas de Portugal. Created on the 1 May 1941, by António Ferro's initiative, the first hotel was inaugurated in 1942.

This Pousada is classed as a Historic Design Pousada, a historical building with modern architectural elements. Crato is in the Portalegre District of Portugal in the Alentejo Region. This photo shows the oldest part of the building which forms a museum, free to staying guests, as well as the entrance to the hotel itself.

The building has, in the past, been a castle, a convent, a palace and now a hotel and museum. Built in the dryer and hotter interior of the country, building design incorporated water use and capture to create a cooler interior. Water was diverted to this central courtyard and then overflowed into underground cisterns, which still exist.

The Knights of the Order of Malta built the monastery in the 14th century, and there still remains to this day an air of medieval mysticism. The various buildings combine the architectural elements of the Gothic, and Manueline (sixteenth century) features, and appears more like a fortified castle than a monastery.

At one time allowed to fall into complete ruin, it has been wonderfully restored to present the guest with a hotel that literally oozes style and history. Portugalpousdas.com

This is the best-preserved fortified monastery in the Iberian Peninsula, although the structure and style initially seem more like that of a castle, dating back to a time when the Alentejo’s borders were constantly under threat.

The original building dates back to the 14th century, when Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira – father of Nuno Álvares Pereira, the Saint Constable – had the monastery constructed. It was attributed to the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order (also called the Order of Malta), founded during the time of the Crusades, which explains the convent’s more fortified appearance. storiespestana

According to archaeologists, the monastery has seen its fair share of building work since its initial construction, with layers and layers of history superimposed. For centuries it remained functional, surviving the Restoration wars, the 1755 earthquake and other disasters, such as fires and landslides. Its future was to be somewhat fragile. In 1910, when the Flor da Rosa Monastery was declared a national monument, it had already been abandoned for almost a century. In the 1940s, the State began restoration work, but it wasn’t until 50 years later that it was converted into a pousada.

Carrilho da Graça, the architect responsible for the new design, described the space as “labyrinthine” on his first visit. It’s easy to see why. Additions had been made to the Gothic structure over the centuries, but with one common feature: “The clash of fragments from so many different eras is unified by granite.”

During our stay, there was an exhibition in the vaulted chambers of the old convent, which was open to guests. We had this exhibition to ourselves which added to the ancient atmosphere of the place. The exhibition was of carved and painted sculptures rescued from old churches all over Portugal, the subject, Virgin and Child. Most of the sculptures are over 500 years old.