On another day trip from Lisbon, we went a little farther to the lovely town of Evora, Portugal. This 5,000-year-old university town preserves remnants of many of its previous occupants including a Roman temple, aqueducts, medieval city walls, and more. In addition to exploring this little town with our tour guide, we went out to the countryside to two megalithic sites taking us back to the Neolithic age. And, let me just add here, the Portuguese countryside is beautiful!
Evora’s main attractions are the cathedral, Roman ruins throughout the city, and the bone chapel. However, one reason this city remains relevant is the university. Started as a Jesuit university in the sixteenth century on the foundations of academia since the Manueline era, the University of Evora reopened in the 1970s. This makes Evora not only a historical gem of the Portuguese countryside, but also a hive of activity for young university students and academics.
Evora Cathedral
Considered one of the most important medieval monuments in Portugal, this beautiful house of worship showcases several architecture styles from its more than 700 years in existence. The attached cloister is also lovely. Little surprises can be found in each corner. I particularly enjoyed a trip up to the roof. It provided not just magnificent views of the city and countryside, but it also allowed me to get up-close and personal with the architectural details of the building.
Church of St. Francis and the Bone Chapel
Another beautiful house of worship in Evora, the Church of St. Francis boasts some one-of-a-kind architecture. This 500-year-old church is a mix of Gothic, Romanesque, Manueline, and Moorish styles. The main sanctuary is beautiful and also features renaissance and baroque altarpieces and chapels. I particularly liked one of the side chapels with a big round table with perfectly fitted benches. The walls are covered with beautiful porcelain tiles, and the ceiling has a spectacular trompe-l’oeil mural.
Capela Dos Ossos
One of the main draws at the Church of St. Francis is the Chapel of Bones. This macabre chapel is found in the even older section of the church’s complex that was part of the original cloister and Gothic church. In the 17th century, Evora was an extremely wealthy city. The church itself was called the Convent of Gold. Wealthy nobles and others lived all around. In fact, a palace sits right next door. The Franciscan monks, while relocating bones from overcrowding cemeteries, created a work of art as a social statement to remind the city’s wealthy residents that death doesn’t care about your worldly status and that all look the same when dead. Over the door, an inscription read, “We bones, are here, waiting for yours.” One of the parish priests, Fr. António da Ascenção, furthered this messaging with a poem that hangs on one of the columns.
Where are you going in such a hurry traveler?
Stop … do not proceed;
You have no greater concern,
Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.
Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end,
There is good reason to reflect
If only all did the same.
Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death;
If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop … for the sake of your journey,
The more you pause, the more you will progress.
This is the second ossuary or bone church I’ve visited. It is a bit more basic than the bone church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. However, whereas the Sedlec Ossuary has a skeletal crow picking the eye out of a skull, the Capela dos Ossos had two skeletons hung by the neck, one of them a child’s. Now those skeletons lay in glass cases.
Roman Temple
Evora’s storied past shines in more than the remnants of the past 1,000 years. It goes back much further. On top of the hill, at the center of town, around the corner from the cathedral, stand the ruins of a 1st century Roman temple. Since it was incorporated into medieval structures, it has survived the ages. Other Roman ruins have been found throughout the town. While renovating the lovely town hall, they found remnants of a Roman bath. However, these historical ruins are infants compared to the other ancient sites we visited near Evora.
Neolithic Monuments
First, we went to the Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro. A dolmen is a tomb with a large stone slab resting on top of erected stones. This dolmen dates to between 4,000 and 3,000 B.C. It is considered the largest on the Iberian Peninsula. The ancient people who built this dolmen managed to move astoundingly large stones. How? I don’t know. This site, as well as the cromlech we visited, sit in the middle of private land, so getting to them can be a bit of an adventure on rough dirt roads. This also means that maintenance isn’t that great. You can walk around the Dolmen, but erosion threatens its stability.
The Cromlech of the Almendres is even older than the dolmen, by 2,000-3,000 years. A cromlech isn’t a structure like a dolmen. Instead, it is a circle of stones. Perfectly aligning with the hill Evora is built on, this series of elliptical stone formations holds so many mysteries. Some of the menhirs (standing stones) reveal traces of petroglyphs. Some smaller circles of stones make up the larger formation. Archeologists hypothesize that this special site was used for formal rites and ceremonies. Like many ancient sites like this, certain features line up with specific celestial events throughout the year like equinoxes.
Cork
Another highlight of our day trip to Evora grew on trees. Portugal produces more cork than any other country in the world providing fifty percent of the world’s cork supply. Cork is a kind of tree bark. Most trees can’t lose their bark all the way around. Cork tree though, a variety of oak, can have their cork removed without harming the tree. This sustainable resource is used for all kinds of things, including wine bottle corks. All across the countryside, cork trees and cork plantations grow. Growers harvest the cork (the tree’s bark) every nine years. A tree can grow cork for more than 250 years. While visiting the cromlech and dolmen, we got up-close to some of these magnificent trees. On the larger trees, you see layers of cork harvesting from over the years.
The tour we arranged to this UNESCO World Heritage-listed town could have had as many as eight people with our driver-guide. We got lucky and got a private tour. This made it even better, especially with our very knowledgeable guide. Our day trip to Evora, Portugal was enlightening. I’m glad we did it.
