Browse the records of the Long Vigil.
Tomar — Mother House
In the Order chronicle, Tomar is the Mother House and seat of the Chapter-General. The Stone is kept in a town house below the castle hill.
The account
- Real site: the Convento de Cristo above the Nabão valley; the sixteen-sided Charola around a central octagon, begun c. 1160 by Gualdim Pais; seat of the Order of Christ from 1357; UNESCO site since 1983.
- The Conclave of Tomar (autumn 1312) founded the Vigil here; every Warden swore here and every Grand Master swears here. The Chapter-General meets here.
- 2956: Mother House on Earth; the Chapter-General; the Charola; keeper of the Stone. The Stone stays in a Hearth-kin house in the town below the castle hill, not in the Convent, and is never shown to pilgrims. Isolde Marr died in a narrow room above the Charola (2849).
