r, Coimbra.]

[Sidenote: Cloister, Alcobaca.]

More interesting is the second type which was commonly used when a
cloister with a vault was wanted; and of it there are still examples to
be seen at the Se Velha Coimbra, at Alcobaca, Lisbon Cathedral, Evora,
and Oporto. None of these five examples are exactly alike, but they
resemble each other sufficiently to make it probable that they are all,
ultimately at least, derived from one common source, and there can be no
doubt that that source was Cistercian. In France what was perhaps its
very first beginnings may be seen in the Cistercian abbey of Fontenay
near Monbart, where in each bay there are two round arches enclosed
under one larger round arch. This was further developed at Fontfroide
near Narbonne, where an arcade of four small round arches under a large
pointed arch carries a thin wall pierced by a large round circle. Of the
different Portuguese examples the oldest may very well be that at
Coimbra which differs only from Fontfroide in having an arcade of two
arches in each bay instead of one of four, but even though it may be a
little older than the large cloister of Alcobaca, it must have been due
to Cistercian influence. The great Claustro do Silencio at Alcobaca was,
as an inscription tells, begun in the year 1310,[67] when on April 13th
the first stone was laid by the abbot in the presence of the master
builder Domingo Domingues.[68] In this case each bay has an arcade of
two or three pointed arches resting on coupled columns with strong
buttresses between each bay, but the enclosing arch is not pointed as at
Coimbra or Fontfroide but segmental and springs from square jambs at the
level of the top of the buttresses, and the circles have been all filled
with pierced slabs, some of which have ordinary quatrefoils and some
much more intricate patterns, though in no case do they show the Moorish
influence which is so noticeable at Evora. On the north side projects
the lavatory, an apsidal building with two stories of windows and with
what in France would be regarded as details of the thirteenth century
and not, as is really the case, of the fourteenth. A few bays on the
west walk seem rather later than the rest, as the arches of the arcade
are trefoil-headed, while the upper part of a small projection on the
south side which now contains a stair, as well as the upper cloister to
which it leads, were added by Joao de Castilho for Cardinal Prince
Henry, son of Dom M