The same great content and more in your pocket, the most up-to-date guidebook to the Camino Portugués available.
Wise Pilgrim APPThe Quinta da Cardiga is a former Templar estate — one of several along this stretch of the Tejo valley where the Order held extensive properties. The palace is abandoned and boarded up, left to slow decay behind its graffiti-covered walls. With no inhabitants, it makes a shady rest stop.
The Templars received these lands from Afonso Henriques in the 12th century as a reward for their help in the Reconquista. When the Order was dissolved in 1312, the Portuguese crown transferred its assets to the newly created Order of Christ, which continued to operate from Tomar.
Leave town by passing over the bridge and turning left. The path with take you all the way to Vila Nova da Barquinha, passing the small hamlet of Pedregoso along the way.
