MY DAY IN EVORA, PORTUGAL (CATHEDRAL, BONE CHAPEL, CORK AND EGG TARTS)

A DAY IN EVORA, PORTUGAL (OCTOBER 2014)
Another city with Medieval walls (aka my Dad’s idea of Heaven). But also a beautiful area of Portugal full of cork trees, a memento mori chapel full of bones, a visit to the rooftop of a Cathedral, and a visit to a Roman Temple…

Evora has got a diverse set of places to see for sure, and it’s small enough to see in one day trip.

Enjoy!

On the beautiful ride through the Portuguese country side. Had a bit of a scare on the train because I didn’t bring my passport with me, but the ticket checker wanted to make sure my ticket was for me…not sure why I didn’t bring it! But that’s a warning for ya.

Made it to Evora! A little under 2 hours on the train. Poor Zach had to stay behind, his fever wouldn’t let up.

Beautiful tile work at the train station of Evora places of interest

The Church of St. Francis! We had a cab drop us from the train station (it was less than 10 minutes in the car)

The interior of the church was undergoing heavy renovations, but we were there to see the famous Chapel of Bones

I believe this was a large-scale model of the interior of the St. Francis church (what was undergoing renovations), you could step inside and see the ceiling detail recreated

Here we go.

Shitty pano views of the bone chapel

Meant for you to contemplate your own mortality, the doorway to the room translates to “We bones that here are, for yours await.”

Quite beautiful in design

This area was also undergoing some restorative work

I hope my parents use this picture in their holiday card

Mom smile #1

Mom smile #2

Out into the world!

Here’s a map of some key areas we visited. The arrow at the bottom points to where the Bone Chapel is. From the chapel we walked up towards Praca do Giraldo (where it says St. Anton’s Church on the map). And then explored the narrow streets up towards the Catheral, and down around to the Roman Temple.

It’s all very walkable.

I’ll take all your gourds plz

Yellow-lined windows and doors

The most beautiful sidewalk

We’ve arrived to the Praca do Giraldo, a main square where there used to be big market gatherings. There’s a lot of restaurants and icecream shops (cafes, and egg tart vendors as well).

The narrow roads of Evora

This region of Portugal (Alentejo) has a large quantity of cork trees, and you’ll see that most of the touristy little souvenir shops sell cork products of all kinds. I almost bought some cork oxfords!

A view of the Cathedral

A ticket to the Cathedral lets you wander around the chapel, as well as a visit to the cloisters and the rooftop.

A beautiful view from a beautiful roof

Me and dad

Don’t be dumb, okay

I love the yellow moss that grows on this stone. It’s almost the same yellow as the classic architecture. It makes the stone look like illustration.

A view from the roof down into the cloister

Beautiful views of the red roofs in the distance

Gooorgeous mustard

Back down into the Cathedral

And out to the cloisters

Traveling at off peak times is really lovely for times like these. We were the only ones really wandering around the site.

It was peaceful, beautiful, and you could really appreciate the personality of the light

Parents

Dad

Bloody eye

Gorgeous green central courtyard

With views that opened up onto the Cathedral bell tower

Back in to see the interior

Beautiful altar

And more gorgeous play with light

Bye bye, Cathedral

Wandering around for a quick lunch

Cheese and chorizo

Açorda à Alentejana, my favorite…bread and garlic soup

Where we ate!

My dad fucking LOVING the medieval walls

Would be fun to shoot like a chase scene through these alleys

Tiny leftover piece of Roman aqueduct

A winding walk through more lil’ streets and we found ourselves at the Camara Municipal de Evora

It’s a government building, but you can walk through to the back to see Roman bath ruins they unearthed. Pretty cool.

A medieval arch that is used in many people’s daily commutes. Off Rua de D. Isabel.

Looped back up and through the medieval part of the city to see the Roman Temple ruins

There’s also a car park right next to it

A visit inside Igreja de Sao Joao Evangelista

They keep this area curtained off so you have to pay to walk around. It’s not very big, but the main draw is the gorgeous, well-preserved floor to ceiling tiling.

There’s also this gorgeous gold altar

And you can see down into the crypts

Nearby the Temple ruins and St. John the Evangelist Church is this cute little park. There was a coffee cart with a few snacks, a nice place to chill I think if you’re needing a rest.