The Festa dos Tabuleiros

Tomar holds this once every four years and it takes the town most of a year to prepare. Streets are roofed over with hundreds of thousands of paper flowers, made by hand street by street, so whole lanes become tunnels of colour. On the main day several hundred women walk in procession carrying tabuleiros: trays stacked with thirty loaves of bread threaded onto canes and dressed in paper flowers and ears of wheat, topped with a crown and a white dove, the whole thing built to the height of the woman carrying it. A man walks beside each one in case it goes. Bread and wine are handed out afterwards.

What you actually see

• The tabuleiros - trays of stacked bread and paper flowers as tall as the bearer.
• The decorated streets - lanes roofed in hand-made paper flowers by the residents.
• The procession - several hundred bearers walking the route dressed in white.
• The distribution - bread and wine handed out to the town at the end.

When to go

This is the hard part: it runs every four years, usually in early July, so confirm the year before building a trip around it. The decorated streets go up in the days beforehand and are worth seeing on their own. The procession day is hot and long. In the years between, Tomar's convent and old centre still justify the visit.

Honest expectations

Three years out of four there is no festival at all, which catches people out. In the festival year the town is overwhelmed, accommodation is booked far ahead and prices rise accordingly. The procession is watched standing in July heat for hours with very little shade. Some visitors end up finding the flowered streets more memorable than the procession itself.

Nearby

The Convent of Christ stands on the hill above the town; the Nabao river runs through it.