Gualdim Pais

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Dom Gualdim Pais (1118 – 1195), Portuguese crusader, Templar Friar and Knight of Afonso I of Portugal, was the founder of the city of Tomar.

Gualdim Pais was born in Amares (a town in the province of Minho, near Braga) in 1118, son of Paio Ramires and Gontrode Soares. He fought alongside King Afonso I against the moors, and was ordered a Knight by him in the year of 1139, after the Battle of Ourique. He departed to Palestine shortly thereafter, and during five years fought there as a Knight Templar. He had a prominent role in the siege of the city of Gaza.

He was ordained the fourth Grand Master in Portugal of the Order of Knights Templar in 1157, which then was ruled from Braga. He founded the Castle of Tomar in 1160, then near the frontier with the Muslim states, and transferred the seat of the order there. The famous Round Church of the Castle of Tomar, inspired by similar structures in Jerusalem, was built under his supervision. He gave foral, a feudal contract, to the new town of Tomar in 1162. He supervised the building or restoration of several other frontier castles for the Templars, namely the Castle of Almourol, and those of Idanha, Ceres, Monsanto and Pombal. He also founded the city of Pombal, and gave it Foral in 1174.

Besieged in 1190 by vastly superior forces under the Almoravid King of Morocco Yusuf I, he managed to defeat them with his Knights and thus defended the north of the young Kingdom of Portugal from invasion.

He died in Tomar in the year 1195. His grave is located in the Church of Santa Maria do Olival in that city.