Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
uncovered late in the 19th century. Obviously these unwitting preservation techniques
worked, as the imposing colonnade is stunningly complete.
Termas Romanas
ROMAN RUINS
( 9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri)
Inside the entrance hall of the
câmara municipal
on Praça de
Sertório are more Roman vestiges, discovered only in 1987. These impressive Roman
baths, which include a
laconicum
(heated room for steam baths) with a superbly preserved
9m-diameter circular pool, would have been the largest public building in Roman Évora.
The complex also includes an open-air swimming pool, discovered in 1994.
Universidade de Évora
UNIVERSITY
( 266 740 800; main building 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm Sat)
Just outside the walls to the
northeast is the university's main building (Colégio do Espírito Santo), a descendent (re-
opened in 1973) of the original Jesuit institution founded in 1559 (which closed when the
Jesuits got shooed out by Marquês de Pombal in 1759). Inside are arched, Italian Renais-
sance-style
cloisters
, the Mannerist-style
Templo do Espírito Santo
and beautiful
azulejos
(hand-
painted tiles).
Igreja de São João
CHURCH
(Church of St John the Evangelist; admission €3, plus Salas de Exposição do Palácio €5; 10am-12.30pm & 2-5pm
Tue-Sun)
The small, fabulous Igreja de São João, which faces the Templo Romano, was
founded in 1485 by one Rodrigo Afonso de Melo, count of Olivença and the first gov-
ernor of Portuguese Tangier, to serve as his family's pantheon. It is still privately owned,
by the Duques de Cadaval, and notably well kept.
Behind its elaborate Gothic portal is a nave lined with fantastic floor-to-ceiling
azulejos
produced in 1711 by one of Portugal's best-known tile-makers António de Oliveira Bern-
ardes. The grates in the floor expose a surprising underworld: you can see a deep Moorish
cistern that predates the church, and an ossuary full of monks' bones. In the sacristy bey-
ond are fragments of even earlier
azulejos
.
Convento dos Lóios
BUILDING
