Portugal – Evora

Our journey to Evora this morning took about 2 hours heading steadily slightly south east into the south central part of the country. The ecology of the land changed as we travelled east: harvested vineyards, groves of cork, olive and acorn trees, cattle, sheep predominating the landscape. Occasional abandoned small holdings, their owners probably displaced by the huge power grid that followed the highway, were an echo of a different time. Stork nests were abundant on the electric towers – not nesting but gathering in pairs on individual nests – perhaps as our CEO Summer said – looking at repairs to be done now that this years young have left the nest ????.

Once we reached our hotel a small group of us elected to stay and have lunch at the highly recommended hotel restaurant looking out over the city. What a good decision! Evora is known for its bread, pork products and cheeses. A magnificent charcuterie board featuring local breads, sausages , cheese and local honey, was accompanied by a pork sandwich complete with greens and an egg. Pork croquettes, a green salad and some very good local wine rounded out an excellent lunch.

Following our lunch we met with our excellent local guide for our tour through Evora – a UNESCO world heritage site. I should mention here the high quality of the local guides used by G, which adds to the excellence of their National Geographic Style tours. The incoming rain clouds threatened as we walked through the botanical gardens and began to explore the town. Evora has a long history dating back thousands of years. The Romans arrived around the time of Christ and built the walls around the city as well as the temple of Diana (or all Roman Emperors – depends who you talk to) a viaduct and roman baths – in other words a typical Roman City. The temple at the top of the city still remains today, as do remnants of the walls and viaduct. Ownership bounced around during the dark ages. The 400 or so years of Moorish rule influenced the city architecture. Ownership of the city bounced back to Portugal in the mid 12th C as a result of the work of Gerald the Fearless. The story goes that, although he led only a small force of men, he managed to convince the daughter of the city gatekeeper that he was in love with her. Once he gained entrance to the gatehouse, he decapitated both daughter and father, let his men into the city and they took it easily. The seal on the gate – shown below shows the dude riding with a sword and the heads of his two unfortunate victims held in the other hand. – there is a moral here somewhere……………

Evora became a thriving city, favoured by the Portuguese royals, particularly through the Black Plague. Below is a depiction of Evora under the rule of Manuel I in the 15th C

We entered the city passing by walls from the 13th and 16th Century and drifted through the botanical gardens surrounding the royal palace.

Once through the gardens, our route took us up through the narrow city streets to the large central square, before heading further up the narrow streets towards the Cathedral of Evora.

Once through the cathedral Saint Francis Church was our next stop, which houses the Chapel of Bones – a Chapel totally covered – floor to ceiling with human bones. In the 15th and 16th C, people wanted to be buried as close to God as possible. As always (some things stay the same) the people with more money got the best places- in some cases in the chapel itself. The peasants and rest of the grunts were buried around the outside of the castle or cathedral, their placement due to their economic standing when they died. The bones were fascinating – adults were really small in the middle ages. The skulls are tiny, as are the limb bones – all are from adults.

This trip has spiked an interest in tiles. These were in the Igreja de Sao Francisco – on closer look, although the body types followed a pattern, all of the faces were different. There were also some magnificent tiles for sale in the town.

At the very top of the hill occupied by Evora is the Roman temple – dedicated to the cult of Roman Emperors. It stands right next to the Quarters occupied by the Portuguese Inquisition during their time in the region. Some interesting parallels…..

The heavens finally opened just before 5:30 and our wonderful time with our guide came to an end. An Uber delivered us safely to the hotel. Tomorrow we head off to a cork manufacturer’s establishment, plus there will be farmers in attendance. I am looking forward to the day. Until then – boa noite.