50,000 students discovered Batalha Monastery in staged visits

A proposal aimed at school audiences surpassed the barrier of 50,000 visitors in April. Through the stories dramatized by the theater group in the most emblematic spaces, students discover details about the history, architecture, heritage, protagonists of the time and the construction of the monument.

For the director of the Monastery of Batalha, the visits are “very important” for their ability to attract “thousands of young students from all over the country”.

“With these proposals, they and their teachers feel more curious to know a monument that is talked about and studied in their History curricula”, Joaquim Ruivo told Lusa agency.

Currently, there are two stagings by the ‘O Nariz’ group: “There were only stones when it all began” and “The visit of the marquis”, both with texts by Luís Mourão, the first about the architects who participated in the construction, the second a journey led by a distinguished visitor.

On weekdays, dozens of students discover Batalha Monastery through these interpretations of three actors from ‘O Nariz’.

“We’ve already received schools from all over the country. Even from the Azores. We’ve just never had them from Madeira. That’s what we lack. They arrive because of the good publicity that the Monastery of Batalha does and the word that the teachers pass on to each other”, he said. to Lusa Pedro Oliveira, an actor who has been in the cast of visits for eight years, being responsible for the staging.

With the pandemic, the service was interrupted, “but now it is at the same level as before”, with three visits a day, coexisting with the other tourists who, curious, sometimes join the students.

Miguel Xavier, a teacher at Jardim-Escola João de Deus de Leiria, remembers that his classes were the first to participate. “We have never failed (no school year) and in November we will be there again”.

Its students, aged 9 and 10, reinforce live the teachings on the reign of King João I, the Battle of Aljubarrota or the importance of the 2nd dynasty. “They are not well aware of the importance of the Monastery of Batalha. But with the dramatization, they perceive everything in a completely different way, because a human dimension is gained: they perceive time, distances, what was done in monasteries and registered symbols on the rocks”.

From Cascais to Batalha, Paulo Carvalho, a 2nd cycle history teacher, has been traveling for many years, who has already taken many hundreds of students from Colégio do Amor de Deus on staged visits.

“They are very surprised when they see someone dressed at the time. For them it is a reality that is not normal. Live it is completely different. They take everything very seriously, some really believe in what they are seeing”, he told Lusa.

Miguel Xavier highlights precisely “the naturalness with which everything happens”:

“When the theater starts, they are immersed in history. It feels like they are living in that time”.

The director of the Monastery of Batalha recognizes the capacity of the theater “to create an emotional bond with the monastery”:

“A monument like the Batalha Monastery, which receives 500,000 visitors annually, must be able to motivate and also welcome tens of thousands of young Portuguese students, on a large scale”.

The mark of 50,000 young people participating in the stagings reflects the monument as “one of the first heritage destinations for new generations of Portuguese, for all that it represents”.

“O Nariz” and the educational services are creating a new staged story that, starting next school year, will seek to clarify the visitors’ most frequently asked questions.

For example, “How did they (the ancients) build this? How did they take the stones up there, so high? How did they manage to carve these traceries so well? How did they manage to build these vaults?”.

“These are such simple but important questions that kids and adults constantly ask us”, concluded Joaquim Ruivo.

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