Altar At Alcobaça

...way down there.

The monastery in Alcobaça was a copy of the Claraval Abbey in France where the Cistercian Order was born. Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, requested the assistance of his uncle Bernard de Clairvaux to get the construction of Alcobaça done correctly. He sent his team of monks down to Portugal, just north of Lisbon.

The bloodlines of the Burgundians, Merovingians and arguably most important, the Knights Templar were intertwined in European teamwork. Early to mid 1100s.
As a result of Templar assistance, and in fact many feel it was the plan, Portugal became the First Nation state of Europe.

And then there are the stories relating to the Ark and the Holy Grail.