In 1178 the first king of Portugal built a magnificent Gothic church in the city of Alcobaça (ahl koh BAH sah) to commemorate his victory over the Moors.

The church evolved into a monastery, now home to the tombs of King Pedro I and his murdered mistress Inês, and to a tale of young love gone gruesomely creepy.

Here’s the story: In 1340, Pedro’s father, King Afonso IV, arranged a politically strategic marriage for his son. Pedro instead fell in love with his new wife’s lady-in-waiting, Inês de Castro.

Pedro’s father did not approve of the prince’s affair and exiled Inês. A few years later, Pedro’s wife died. Upon hearing the news, Inês returned to Portugal, moved in with Pedro, and bore him four children.

Afonso thought Inês’s influence presented too much of a threat to Pedro’s legitimate son and heir to the throne. In 1355, the king had Inês murdered.

A grief-stricken Pedro sought revenge against his father and sparked a civil war within Portugal. Upon Afonso’s death in 1357, Pedro became king. Then things got weird—Pedro installed dead Inês as his queen.

Where is the edge? Outer space perhaps?

In ancient times, the edge of the world was the southwestern tip of mainland Europe, Cape Saint Vincent in the western Algarve region of Portugal.

Several civilizations reached the cape, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks. The Romans called it Promontorium Sacrum (Holy Promontory). From the cliffs, they watched the sun set into the sea, marking the extremity of the world as they knew it.

How did a small village outside of Lisbon became a magnet for whimsy and extravagance?

The town of Sintra, sprawling just below the tops of the mountains of the same name, is studded with outlandish palaces, fairytale castles, even a toy museum, each with an intriguing story.

Perhaps the area’s ancient occultism influenced the designers of its many elaborate residences.

Stone Age settlers were first attracted to the valley because of its lushness. It receives more rainfall than the surrounding area and is often shrouded in mist. The landscape was called the Mountains of the Moon by the Romans. Byron called the area “a glorious Eden.”

In elementary school we studied the great European explorers of the 1400s and 1500s. Christopher Columbus, for one. This period is called the Age of Discovery, a time when European royalty sought profitable new trade routes.

The Portuguese, due to several navigational advancements and their strategic location between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, led the way.

Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to sail around Africa’s sourthern tip in 1488. Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India in 1497. Pedro Álvares Cabral “discovered” Brazil in 1500. And Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to sail across the Pacific Ocean in 1520. His expedition was also the first to circumnavigate the world.

By the mid-1500s, Portugal dominated world trade.