The Cloister of S. Barbara is contiguous to the west façade of the church; it is small, but of good architecture, in the Renaissance style, probably the work of D. Manuel. It is in communication with the Hospedaria, or Guests' Cloister, and the handsome Cloister of the Philips, which is often called the Cloister of João III. After the Golden Age of the apogee of maritime discovery D. João III, the Pious, reformed the Order of Christ, transforming the knights into real monks, and their palace into a vast monastery. The cloisters bearing his name, built on to the walls of the Chapter House, were commenced by Queen Catherine in memory of the ill-fated D. Sebastião, and finished during the time of the Spanish intruders. The work is considered by connoisseurs to be the most imposing and beautiful existing in Portugal in the Greco-Roman style. Raczynski calls it magnificent. The grandeur and rigour of the lines are seen in the picture of the Chapter House, which includes a portion of these cloisters. The architect was Diogo de Tarralva. From the terrace above these cloisters—Terraço da Céra, so called through being the drying ground for the candles and waxlights made in the monastery—the upper part of the Chapter House is seen to perfection, also a magnificent panorama of the country around, and every point of interest in the vicinity, including the 228 steps of the long, white pilgrimage ascent to the Chapel of our Lady of Pity on a near hill.
In addition to the cloisters already mentioned there were others connecting with the immense corridors of the monastery, the refectory, the kitchen. Above the Claustro do Mixo there were three halls, called the Salas of the Cortes: of the clergy, nobility and the people. It was in Thomar the Cortes was convoked for the proclamation of the first Philip, the Intruder, when he
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