THOMAR  , a

town of central Portugal, in the district of Santarem; on the river Nabao, a tributary of the Zezere, m, from Paialvo railway station, which is go m N.E. of Lisbon by the main line to Oporto . Pop . (1900), 6888 . Thomar contains examples of the best Portuguese architecture from the 12th century to the 17th . The ruined castle of the Knights Templar, given to that order in 1159, is said to occupy the site of the ancient Nabantia . On the suppression of the Templars, who had done good service against the Moors, King Diniz of Portugal founded the Order of Christ in 1314 . The convent palace of the Knights of Christ includes a church and cloister dating from the 12th century, two cloisters and a chapter-house added in the 15th century by Prince Henry the Navigator, a very fine 16th century church built in the Manoellian or Manueline style by Joao de Castilho, to which the older church served as a chancel, and other buildings erected later . The convent contains Flemish and Portuguese paintings of the 16th century, of the so-called " Grao Vasco " school . Its aqueduct, 3 M. long, was built 1595-1615 . Other interesting buildings are the churches of Santa Maria do Olival, rebuilt in the Gothic style in 1450 on the site of an older Templar foundation; Sao Joao Baptista, also Gothic, built in 1490, but with Manoellian additions; Nossa Senhora da Conceicao, Renaissance of 1579; and the palace of Prince Henry the Navigator, restored in the 16th century by Queen Catherine, widow of John III .