The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is Batalha's parish church, standing on the main square a few minutes' walk from the monastery. It is sixteenth-century in origin, rebuilt and modified several times — Manueline portal, Renaissance interior, Baroque altars — but kept on a domestic scale appropriate to a small market town.
The interior is whitewashed and quiet, lined with eighteenth-century blue-and-white azulejo panels showing scenes from the life of Christ and the founding of the monastery across the square. There is a small museum of religious art in the side chapel. Worth ten minutes after the monastery for contrast, particularly if the monastery has felt overwhelming.