6, and shattered by the
earthquake of 1755, has little left of its original work except the
stump of a west tower standing on a porch open on three sides with plain
pointed arches, and leading to the church on the fourth by a door only
remarkable for the dog-tooth of its hood-mould.

[62] The towers stand quite separate from the walls and are united to
them by wide round arches.

[63] In the dilapidated courtyard of the castle there is one very
picturesque window of Dom Manoel's time (his father the duke of Beja is
buried in the church of the Conceicao in the town).

[64] An inscription says:--

'Era 1362 [i.e. A.D. 1324] anos foi
esta tore co (mecad) a (aos) 8
dias demaio. e mandou a faze (r
o muito) nobre Dom Diniz
rei de P...'

[65] Just outside the castle there is a good romanesque door belonging
to a now desecrated church.

[66] Some of the distinctive features of Norman such as cushion capitals
seem to be unknown in Normandy and not to be found any nearer than
Lombardy.

[67] Sub Era MCCCXLVIII. idus Aprilis, Dnus Nuni Abbas monasterij de
Alcobatie posuit primam lapidem in fundamento Claustri ejusdem loci.
presente Dominico Dominici magistro operis dicti Claustri. Era 1348 =
A.D. 1310.

[68] It is interesting to notice that the master builder was called
Domingo Domingues, who, if Domingues was already a proper name and not
still merely a patronymic, may have been the ancestor of Affonso
Domingues who built Batalha some eighty years later and died 1402.

[69] In this cloister are kept in a cage some unhappy ravens in memory
of their ancestors having guided the boat which miraculously brought St.
Vincent's body to the Tagus.

[70] Cf. the aisle windows of Sta. Maria dos Olivaes at Thomar.

[71] It was at Leca that Dom Fernando in 1372 announced his marriage
with Dona Leonor Telles de Menezes, the wife of Joao Lourenco da Cunha,
whom he had seen at his sister's wedding, and whom he married though he
was himself betrothed to a daughter of the Castilian king, and though
Dona Leonor's husband was still alive: a marriage which nearly ruined
Portugal, and caused the extinction of the legitimate branch of the
house of Burgundy.

[72] Opening off the north-west corner of the cathedral is an apsidal
chapel of about the same period, entered by a fine pointed door, one of
whose mouldings is enriched by an early-looking chevron, but whose real
date is shown by the leaf-carving of its capitals.

[73] A note