Evora

Evora & Vicinity

Evora is a popular tourist attraction in the Alto Alentejo region of Portugal. It's popularity in part is due to the wide variety of artifacts available for viewing in and around the town. These include the ruins of a Roman Temple, a large cathedral, a bizarre Franciscan Chapel (The Chapel of Bones), several palaces and castles, as well as a number of megalithic sites.

This is the ruins of the Roman Temple.

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The Se, the Cathedral of Evora.

This is the truly bizarre Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones). The walls of this chapel are lined with the bone remains of over 5,000 Franciscan Monks. Apparently there was an extreme shortage of cemetery space in Evora in the 15th century, which the monks solved by using the remains of their predecessors to create a gruesome covering for the walls of their chapel.

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Photo by Jack & Nikki Goodman

Within 15 kilometers of Evora are dozens of megalithic sites. We visited a few of them.

On the left is the Menir dos Almendes. This stone was set in what is now a large cork and olive plantation.

On the right is the Ante Grande do Zambujero, which appears to be some sort of ceremonial setting. Obviously from the sheet metal cover the brick and wood supports this site is falling apart.

This is the Comeleque dos Almendes and was the most impressive of the few sites we visited while touring the Evora region. Here are nearly 100 stones forming concentric enclosures, which were presumed to have been used for astronomical observations or other purposes. No one is sure.

While touring these megalithic sites we got the opportunity to view some cork groves up close. We could see how the Portuguese harvest the cork well up the trunk. We also noticed that many of the harvested trees were marked with numbers. We assumed these related to when the harvest took place and when the cork bark could be expected to grow back.