Jane definitely had a temperature during the night but today she felt much better and was determined to walk into Evora and explore it. And we did!
The walk into the town took less than half and hour and, conveniently, we arrived in the main square right by the tourist information office. Jane spotted that they had an audio tour of the town and we splashed out the huge sum of €2 (£1.50) each for the handsets. The tour was interesting and amusing at times – it took the form of a conversation between two people e.g. “And what is a Roman Forum?”, “It is a large open space at the centre of the Roman town and is the market place with shops around the edges”. Informative but a little artificial, we thought that we had got the children's commentary at first (there was one but this wasn't it). There was a great deal of interest with extant Roman walls, remains of a 1st century AD Roman temple (reused over time for number of different purposes including as a slaughterhouse), a long 16th Century aqueduct probably built over the original Roman one, Portugal's first university founded in 1559 and a large number of interesting buildings and churches. Between the 14th and the 16th centuries, Evora was a patronised by the Portuguese royal family, which brought a great deal of wealth into the city and much of the impressive architecture dates to this period. When the Spanish took over the throne of Portugal in the late 16th century, the city declined and this probably lead to the preservation of the city and has kept it as compact as it is today.
One fascinating stop, not mentioned in the audio tour was the Capela dos Ossos in the church of Sao Francisco. The walls and pillars of the 'chapel of bones' are lined with the bones of 5000 monks and the effect is quite sobering especially when you read the sign over the door that translates as “We bones are waiting here for your bones”.
Photos: The Evora Roman temple locally known, incorrectly, as the Temple of Diana; The bone-lined chapel of the church of Sao Fransisco; A lecture room in the Evora (formally Jesuit) university with its painted tiles and lecturer's 'pulpit'.
The walk into the town took less than half and hour and, conveniently, we arrived in the main square right by the tourist information office. Jane spotted that they had an audio tour of the town and we splashed out the huge sum of €2 (£1.50) each for the handsets. The tour was interesting and amusing at times – it took the form of a conversation between two people e.g. “And what is a Roman Forum?”, “It is a large open space at the centre of the Roman town and is the market place with shops around the edges”. Informative but a little artificial, we thought that we had got the children's commentary at first (there was one but this wasn't it). There was a great deal of interest with extant Roman walls, remains of a 1st century AD Roman temple (reused over time for number of different purposes including as a slaughterhouse), a long 16th Century aqueduct probably built over the original Roman one, Portugal's first university founded in 1559 and a large number of interesting buildings and churches. Between the 14th and the 16th centuries, Evora was a patronised by the Portuguese royal family, which brought a great deal of wealth into the city and much of the impressive architecture dates to this period. When the Spanish took over the throne of Portugal in the late 16th century, the city declined and this probably lead to the preservation of the city and has kept it as compact as it is today.
One fascinating stop, not mentioned in the audio tour was the Capela dos Ossos in the church of Sao Francisco. The walls and pillars of the 'chapel of bones' are lined with the bones of 5000 monks and the effect is quite sobering especially when you read the sign over the door that translates as “We bones are waiting here for your bones”.
Photos: The Evora Roman temple locally known, incorrectly, as the Temple of Diana; The bone-lined chapel of the church of Sao Fransisco; A lecture room in the Evora (formally Jesuit) university with its painted tiles and lecturer's 'pulpit'.
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