Évora

Évora: history & character

Évora, founded in Roman times as Ebora Liberalitas Iulia (1st century BC), preserves a Roman Temple dedicated to Emperor Augustus — the best-preserved on the Iberian peninsula. Successively Visigothic, Moorish (Yābora, 715-1166) and Christian, Évora was a royal residence in the 15th-16th centuries and hosted Portugal's second university in 1559. Now the capital of the Alentejo (54,000 people) and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986, it's an open-air museum where the Roman Temple, Gothic cathedral, Renaissance palaces and the eerie Capela dos Ossos (5,000 skeletons lining the walls) coexist on 1.1 km² of Centro Histórico. For travellers with a dog, Évora is one of Europe's most accessible UNESCO destinations: walkable Centro Histórico in 20 min, dog-tolerant Alentejano tasca culture by default, cork-oak montado trails just outside the walls, and direct CP rail link from Lisbon in 1h30.