Other sights in Évora
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Temple
Opposite the museum are the remains of a Roman temple dating from the 2nd or early 3rd century. It’s among the best-preserved Roman monuments in Portugal, and probably on the Iberian Peninsula. Though it’s commonly referred to as the Temple of Diana, there’s no consensus about the deity to which it was dedicated, and some archaeologists believe it may have been dedicated to Julius Caesar. How did these 14 Corinthian columns, capped with Estremoz marble, manage to survive in such good shape for some 18 centuries? The temple was apparently walled up in the Middle Ages to form a small fortress, and then used as the town slaughterhouse. It was uncovered late in the 19th centu…
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Church
Évora’s best-known church is a tall and huge Manueline-Gothic structure, completed around 1510 and dedicated to St Francis. Exuberant nautical motifs celebrating the Age of Discoveries deck the walls and reflect the confident, booming mood of the time. It’s all topped by a cross of Christ’s order and dome. Legend has it that the Portuguese navigator Gil Vicente is buried here.
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Church of St John the Evangelist
The small, fabulous Church of St John the Evangelist, which faces the Templo Romano, was founded in 1485 by one Rodrigo Afonso de Melo, count of Olivença and the first governor of Portuguese Tangier, to serve as his family’s pantheon. It’s still privately owned, by the Duques de Cadaval, and notably well kept.
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Cloister
The cool cloister is an early-14th-century addition. Downstairs are the stone tombs of Évora’s last four archbishops. At each corner of the cloister a dark, circular staircase (at least one will be open) climbs to the top of the walls, from where there are good views.
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