Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sé
(Largo do Marquês de Marialva; admission €1.50-4.50; 9am-12.20pm & 2-4.50pm)
Évora's cathedral looks
like a fortress, with two stout granite towers. It was begun around 1186, during the reign
of Sancho I, Afonso Henriques' son - there was probably a mosque here before that - and
was completed about 60 years later. The flags of Vasco da Gama's ships were blessed here
in 1497.
You enter the cathedral through a portal flanked by 14th-century stone apostles, flanked
in turn by asymmetrical towers and crowned by 16th-century roofs. Inside, the Gothic in-
fluence takes over. The chancel, remodelled when Évora became the seat of an archdio-
cese, represents the only significant stylistic change since the cathedral was completed.
Golden light filters through the window across the space.
The cool
cloister
is an early-14th-century addition. Downstairs are the stone tombs of
Évora's last four archbishops. At each corner of the cloister a dark, circular staircase (at
least one will be open) climbs to the top of the walls, from where there are good views.
A
museum
is to the cathedral's right. Recently relocated here from the cathedral after its
restoration, the building - the former 'College of the Choirboys' - houses an enormous
collection of religious art, icons and ecclesiastical riches. A highlight is a jewelled
reliquary (containing a fragment of the true cross), encrusted with emeralds, diamonds,
sapphires and rubies. Enter the museum via a modern black electronic door (scan your
ticket and make sure you keep it as you need it again to exit).
CHURCH
Templo Romano
(Temple of Diana; Largo do Conde de Vila Flor)
Opposite the Évora Museum are the remains of a Ro-
man temple dating from the 2nd or early 3rd century. It's among the best- preserved Ro-
man monuments in Portugal, and probably on the Iberian Peninsula. Though it's com-
monly referred to as the Temple of Diana, there's no consensus about the deity to which it
was dedicated, and some archaeologists believe it may have been dedicated to Julius
Caesar.
How did these 14 Corinthian columns, capped with Estremoz marble, manage to sur-
vive in such good shape for some 18 centuries? The temple was apparently walled up in
the Middle Ages to form a small fortress, and then used as the town slaughterhouse. It was
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