The Monastery of Batalha is a Dominican convent and a masterpiece of Gothic art. Its late Gothic architecture is intermingled with the Manueline style. The ornate convent has been put up in limestone. It amazes the onlooker with its profusion of gables, spires, pinnacles and buttresses. The convent was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. It took over a century to build, starting in 1386 and ending circa 1517, spann