City of Tomar

Statue of Dom Gualdim Pais, the founder of Tomar

Dom Gualdim Pais was a knights templar at the service of the King Dom Afonso Henriques, who by the way, was the founder of the kingdom of Portugal. They are both founders. The king founded Portugal and Gualdim Pais founded the City of Tomar more than 800 years ago. This Portuguese Knight whose statue you can see in these photos below, fought with the new king of Portugal the Battle of Ourique, which was one of the the greatest battles for freedom that Portugal had to fight. The Portuguese were hugely outnumbered against five Moorish Kings but the King of Portugal D. Afonso Henriques helped by Gualdim Pais and other knights, defeated them and that cemented Portugal as a free kingdom. As a reward for helping the king, Gualdim Pais was ordained the fourth Grand Master of the Order of Knights Templar and that led him to later (1160) start the building of the Castle of Tomar establishing there the new headquarters of the Templars and as a result creating a new town which would be called Tomar.

This is the statue of Gualdim Pais, the founder of the city of Tomar in Portugal, in 1162

Statue of Gualdim Pais at Republica Square, who founded Tomar 849 years ago

Inscription on the Statue of Gualdim Pais. It says: To Gualdim Pais the Founder of Tomar with important dates below