The Cistercians, who entered Portugal around 1144, settled for the first time in the monastery of São João de Tarouca (Beira Alta), directly dependent on Clairvaux, similarly to the subsequent foundations of Lafões and Salzedas (Beira Alta; Cocheril, 1966; Real, 1983a). The military orders, together with the active presence of Frankish and English crusaders, contributed to the advance of the reconquest of the Portuguese territory, receiving in exchange great royal concessions of land and goods. Among these emerges the Order of the Templars, especially during the mandate of Gualdim Pais, founder of the castle and the charola of Tomar (Ribatejo; Barroca, 1990-1991). L’ Order of the Hospitallers settled in the Upper Alentejo, while that of the Knights of Santiago actively participated in the conquest of the Algarve. °), were again restored in parallel with the reconquest of the cities: Braga (1070), Coimbra (1080), Porto (1112), Lisbon, Lamego, Viseu (1166). Some of them were initially occupied by French Cluniac monks, who guaranteed the spread of the Roman liturgy (introduced between 1080 and 1085). Coimbra maintained the Mozarabic liturgy until the years 1115-1116 (de Jesús da Costa, 1959).
According to Healthvv, most of the preserved buildings date from the 12th and 13th centuries. The first Romanesque of the century. 11 °, also known as Romanesque count, coinciding its diffusion with the government of Count Henry of Burgundy, it left few vestiges in Portugal In addition to the remains of the primitive cathedral of Braga (Real, 1992), the monastic church of São Pedro a Rates, built at the end of the century, belongs to this period. 11th by order of Count Henry and his wife, who donated it in 1100 to the French priory of La Charité-sur-Loire. Numerous elements remain of the primitive church in the head cross and in the north aisle, linked to the Mozarab tradition (Ferreira de Almeida, 1975; Real, 1982). Its basilica plan with three naves divided into four spans and transept gave rise to an architectural type of Benedictine root, known as the ‘Portuguese Benedictine plant’, with three naves of three spans and false transept, as most Portuguese Romanesque churches have a single nave with a semicircular, polygonal or rectangular apse. The ‘Portuguese Benedictine plant’ originated in the second quarter of the century. 12 °, appearing, among others, in the churches of São Salvador in Travanca, São Salvador in Paço de Sousa (Douro Litoral), Santa Maria in Pombeiro, São Salvador in Ganfei (Minho) and Santa Maria a Ermelo (Trás-os- Montes; Real, 1983b). This scheme was also adopted by a significant number of collegiate schools, almost all established in Coimbra, a fact which may have been influenced by the belonging of Santa Justa in Coimbra to the French priory of La Charité-sur-Loire. The capitals of the cloister of São João de Almedina in Coimbra (Mus. Nac. De Machado de Castro) are also attributed to this Romanesque count, whose sculptural decoration is in turn related to that which appears in the chapel of São Geraldo in the cathedral of Braga and in the old parts of São Pedro in Rates.
The regular canons of s. Agostino, who supported King Alfonso Henriques in his policy of expansion and autonomy of the Portugal, founded Santa Cruz in Coimbra in 1131, outside the city walls. The church, greatly transformed, would have consisted of a single very wide and vaulted nave, with lower side chapels than the main chapel, and a large tower-narthex in front of the facade, which gave it the appearance of a fortification. This last architectural element is common to other churches of the Order: São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon, founded in 1147, São Martinho in Crasto, São Salvador in Banho, São Esteban de Vilela (Nogueira Gonçalves, 1980; Mattoso, 1982a; Real, 1983b) The early Cistercian foundation church of São João de Tarouca was built starting in 1152 and consecrated in 1169, following the plan of Clairvaux II. The head of the cross originally consisted of three rectangular apses, later replaced by a single deeper one. The internal structure still followed, with the exception of the pillars, the Fontenay model. The scheme of tripartite, scalar head cross with rectangular apses is frequent in Portuguese Cistercian churches, as in the cases of Abadia Velha de Salzedas, Santa Maria de Aguiar and Santa Maria de Fiães (Nobre de Gusmão, 1956; Crozet, 1964; Real, 1983). The construction of the od. abbey church of Santa Maria in Alcobaça (v.) was begun in 1178 and finished in 1252, with the support of the kings. According to the thesis of Nobre de Gusmão (1948), its head cross follows the model of Clairvaux III, with an apse surrounded by nine radial chapels with a trapezoidal plan and a transept with two aisles (Dimier, 1971). With the exception of a building prior to the Sé Velha in Coimbra, from around 1100., and of the different construction phases of the cathedral of Braga, which lasted throughout the century. 12 °, the other Portuguese cathedrals were built starting from the second half of the same century.
