Évora

Well, we had a wonderful day and a half in Évora including perfect sunny weather. So, here a bit about the city and what we did and saw.

Évora is a located in the Alentejo, a large agricultural region in the south of Portugal, immediately north of the Algarve which is our home area while we are in Portugal. As of 2004, the city had just under 42,000 inhabitants.

Évora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its well-preserved old town centre mostly enclosed by medieval walls and containing a large number of monuments dating from various historical periods, including a Roman Temple.

Its history dates back more than two millennia. It was known as Ebora by the Celts. In 57 BC the Romans conquered it and made it into a walled town. Julius Caesar called it Liberalitas Julia (Julian generosity). Vestiges from this period, including city walls, ruins of Roman baths baths and the monumental Corinthian temple still remain.

Above is an image of the top of the wall, a gate into the city and the wall extending on beyond the gate.

The city grew in importance because it lay at the junction of several important routes. Following the decline of the Roman Empire and a brief period under the Visigoths, the city was conquered by the Moors in 715. They called it Yaburah. The Moors, under whom the city prospered, were driven from Évora by Giraldo Sem Pavor (Giraldo the Fearless!) in 1165 and in 1166 it came under the rule of the Portuguese king Afonso I. It flourished as one of the most dynamic cities in the Kingdom of Portugal in the Middle Age during which time the citizenry constructed palaces, monuments and religious buildings in a variety of architectural styles (Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, Baroque), including the cathedral, the Aqueduct and other sites we visited.

The medieval architecture along with a few remnants of the architectural contributions of the Moors and the picturesque labyrinth of squares and narrow streets of the old city are all part of the rich heritage of this city.
This is Praça do Giraldo (remember him? He is the one who drove the Moors from Évora) the centre of the city and it is here that secular and religious celebrations often took place. Now filled with cafes and shops, it was once a place of execution during the Inquisition, and it is here that we started our time in Évora with lunch.

This photo looks south from our outdoor lunch table toward the Church of Santo Antão, a renaissance style structure built, in accordance with the designs of the royal architects, in the 16th century on the site of a Roman triumphal arch demolished in 1570.

Our outdoor lunch place was under one of those umbrellas. The gothic looking building beyond the umbrellas is Estaus Palace built by King D. Duarte, also in the 16th century.

The walk ways in front of the shops on the east side of the Praça are covered as shown in the adjacent photo; these are quite neat and offer shelter from sun and rain.

We picked up our map and some guidance from the tourist information office and after lunch set off for the Évora cathedral which is only a 5 minute walk from the Praça. Of course, there are lots of small shops along the way, so it took more than 5 minutes.

And, when we got ourselves oriented, we realized the most of the places we wanted to see that day were very close to the Cathedral. That was a real plus.

I know, too many cathedrals, but this is what we did, and we found some of it interesting.

The cathedral, originally Romanesque was built between 1186 and 1204, was restored in the gothic style in the 14th century. It reminds me a bit of the Se, the large cathedral in Lisboa.

This photo shows, not very well I admit, the asymmetrical towers (one tower has a conical spire covered with coloured ceramic tiles while the other is surrounded by six turrets, each of which is a miniature copy of the tower itself - you'll see this a bit better later), and the entrance.

The twelve apostles in the entrance portal are apparently regarded as a masterpiece of Portuguese Gothic sculpture and one of the most important features of the Cathedral.

I am not sure, but I think one of the two closest to the entry is likely Peter. So far, I have not found anything on the web that provides information about who the two special apostles represent.

Before going into the cathedral we entered the cloisters and the first thing we saw was a brightly lighted drink machine! What a way to begin a tour of a medieval cathedral.

And I think my photos of the cloister walkways are better than the ones I have seen on the web, so I show one of mine here.

You can find lots of photos of the inside of this cathedral on line, so I show only one "standard" one and then a few I like.

Like this one of the ceiling of part of the nave.

And this view of the tower with all the miniature turrets - taken from inside the cloister walkway.

One more view of the turreted tower also taken from the cloister walk way.

Ruth found a spiral staircase leading from the cloister to its roof. The view from the roof was not that interesting but negotiating the small steps of the very narrow spiral staircase was. A couple of photos - one coming out at the top

and the other looking down as I prepared for the decent into the dark very narrow space.

Enough about the cathedral - more about other parts of Évora in the next blog or two.