Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
Church—free; Bone Chapel—€2 (additional €1 to take photos);
June-Aug Mon-Sat 9:00-12:45 & 14:30-17:45, Sept-May Mon-Sat until 17:15, opens at
10:00 Sun and holidays.
Visiting the Church and Chapel:
Imagine the
church
in its original, pure
style—simple, as St. Francis would have wanted it. It's wide, with just a single nave
lined by chapels. In the 18th century, it became popular for wealthy families to buy fancy
chapels, resulting in today's gold-leaf hodgepodge. The huge Baroque chapel to the left
of the altar is over-the-top, with St. Francis and Claire, his partner in Christ-like simpli-
city, surrounded by anything but poverty. It's slathered in gold leaf from Brazil. The fine
18th-century tiles tell stories of St. Francis' life.
The entrance to the
bone chapel
(Capela dos Ossos) is outside, to the right of the
church entrance. The intentionally thought-provoking message above the chapel reads:
“We bones in here wait for yours to join us.” Inside the macabre chapel, bones line the
walls, and a chorus of skulls stares blankly at you from walls and arches. They were un-
earthed from various Évora churchyards. This was the work of three monks who were
concerned about society's values at the time. They thought this would provide Évora, a
town noted for its wealth in the early 1600s, with a helpful place to meditate on the transi-
ence of material things in the undeniable presence of death. The bones of the three Fran-
