A short distance north of Porto, the church of Leca do Balio rises above the surrounding plain with the silhouette of a small stronghold: a square tower topped with battlements, thick walls, narrow openings, and only sparing decoration on the portal. The name records its history, for the monastery was long associated with the Order of the Hospital of Saint John, the military order whose Portuguese bailiff, the balio, was seated here. The Gothic building that survives replaced earlier structures, and its combination of monastic function with defensive form is characteristic of an order that was simultaneously religious and military. Inside, the nave is severe and vertical, lit through small windows, with medieval funerary monuments and a stone baptismal font among its notable furnishings. Classified as a national monument, the church is filmed here as a rare and legible example of the architecture of the military orders in Portugal, in a landscape now largely industrial.
