Evora and Monsaraz.
EVORA
We boarded the 8.06am train in Sintra heading for Lisbon and a change of trains for our two hour journey to Evora (pronounced EH-VOH-RAH) with a population of 57,000 people and which has been an important city for 2000 years - from the Romans to the Moors to Portuguese Kings.
Evora (also Ebora) is our final destination in Portugal; a walled city, located in the middle of the great Alentejo Plain, which made it easy for early traders to travel through, and so it became a commercial centre, and it is the capital of the Alentejo region. Lisbon and Porto account for 2/3 of Portugal's 10.5 million citizens, and Evora is the 'big city' in the South.
The town boasts two sets of walls - inner (very old) and outer (old).
Our host Luisa met us and proudly escorted us to our apartment for our three night stay in the centre of the town surrounded by whitewashed buildings, cafes and narrow lanes. She welcomed us with a bottle of wine, sheep’s cheese and fresh bread.
View into the main square from the balcony.
Soon after settling in and doing a load of washing, we found a delightful outdoor restaurant “Pateo” for a late chicken salad lunch accompanied by the traditional Portuguese drink - white port and tonic. Perfect on a 35C day.
Glyn loves the ad by the local optician/publican!
We were just settling down in bed around 10pm when the sound of drumming got us back up and out onto the balcony to find a brass band and parade passing below.
How did they know we were in town? 😉
We asked the Tourist Info man about it the next day and he had no idea....
The 'Welcome Parade'???
As it happened, the following day was in fact Portugal's National Day holiday, so it may have been connected but maybe not, because the National Day commemorates the death on 10 June 1580 of Luís de Camões, a poet and national literary icon, not a major victory or discovery, and on the day itself there was zero by way of celebration that we could see.
The city is surrounded by cork trees, olive and almond groves, and vineyards and the Alentejo supports extensive cereal cultivation. (see further on re grain/codfish trade)
As in much of Portugal, the tourist shops are full of products made of cork - hats, handbags, bracelets, belts, even shoes.
This shop shows the raw material alongside finished products.
The next morning, with no set plan we set off mid-morning for our coffee and pastel de nata before shopping for a few essentials. Black tea and muesli both a challenge!. After three very small “mercados” we settled on All-Bran flakes (we think….). And found a delightful lolly-shop along the way, and also a strange window display of marrows(?).
Being a cool day we wandered up and down narrow lanes and roads and along the way we found the University, the Roman Temple ruins and the Evora Cathedral. Ivor to the top of the cathedral (not that high) for a photo opportunity.
The University is the second oldest university in Portugal (after Coimbra). It was established in 1559 as a Jesuit university. Then, two hundred years after it was established, the University was a target of the Marquis of Pombal’s Jesuit oppression, and King Jose I decided the Jesuits had become too rich and too political so he closed it down in 1759.
It was reopened nearly two hundred years later – in 1973 - as a secular university, injecting 7,000 students into the Evora community.
We didn’t enter the Uni, but we hear that each faculty is decorated with blue tiles depicting the subject taught, and that each ‘classroom’ has a pulpit – the theory (back in the day) being that lessons delivered from up high were beyond rebuttal.
Classroom - University of Evora
We then returned to our favourite restaurant “Pateo” for dinner - when you find something good do you stay with it or do you keep exploring? A bit of both we suspect.
We are pacing ourselves and ensuring we get time to rest as walking along these uneven, cobbled and steep streets can be hard going.
We had read that The Chapel of Bones is one of the best-known monuments in Evora so the following morning we headed there. It was horrible (Glynis), a bit disconcerting (Ivor) to see walls built of skulls and bones set in concrete. We were in and out in a few minutes.
One perspective is that death is part of the lifecycle - this message clearly comes across via the sign at the entrance - "We bones are here, for yours we wait".
In need of a change we continued on to the display of Nativity scenes on the upper level of the church. The majority of the over 200 Nativity scenes displayed are part of private collection of some 2,600. It was wonderful and we spent a very pleasant time admiring the sets from all around the world. Some were quite quirky as well as quite beautiful.
Later in the day Ivor had booked a two-hour Historical & Cultural walking and photo opportunity tour of Evora with “GuruWalks”. Glyn decided to relax in the apartment to give her little legs a rest as we have a big day tomorrow.
The GuruWalks tour was informative – but difficult to stay on track due to the constantly changing eras covered – Roman at one moment, early Portuguese, then Moor-dominated, then Restoration of Portuguese rule, back to something Roman.... all a bit confusing.
Not a lot more than we'd already seen, the most impressive being the 18km aqueduct bringing water to Evora and which still 'works' when there's heavy rain.
Houses built into the gaps between the aqueduct arches,
Remains of a royal palace with peacocks strolling around - including mother hen with chicks.
On the downside, Evora was one of the two centres for the Inquisition 'trials' (the other being Lisbon) and this building was where thousands of victims were questioned, tried and sentenced.
And next door was the home of the bishop in charge of the Inquisition, with the emblem of the Inquisition above the door.
After three weeks in Portugal, we were a little over Portuguese food and on the guided walk Ivor discovered a quaint “hole in the wall” restaurant offering Italian food - Buona Forchetta - Good Fork.
We promptly booked a table and enjoyed a fabulous dinner - in front of a picture of Vesuvius - before returning to our apartment to enjoy a bedtime drop of Portuguese red wine. Portuguese wine, especially the reds, have been excellent to the point that the reds have become Glyn’s preferred drop much to Ivor’s delight!
Our flight from Lisbon to Spain had been changed to 10.25pm 😳 and as we had to check out of our apartment at 11.00am we had booked a tour departing from Evora to Monsaraz at 11.00.
But before leaving the city we stopped for coffee and met a lovely Zulu fellow - Zwelihle - coming from a town not far from where Ivor and his brothers grew up in Zululand, South Africa. He came across to play soccer in Portugal and with the season finished, is working in the cafe while sorting out paperwork for residence. We had a good chat and wished him well with his career and paperwork process.
Our guide for the day was Fabio, who had studied tourism at the Evora University. He was very interesting and good fun to be with. We had heard that the city boasted 24 churches, but Fabio said 32 - 16 inside the walls and another 16 outside!
En-route to Monsaraz we stopped at a pottery. It is a family business; the father still wants to keep the business making some of the pottery in the traditional hand-crafted manner while his son runs the machine-assisted production lines, and the daughter has a line in artistically hand-painted items. The handmade pottery was lovely and Glyn left wishing we had room for a couple of salad bowls.
The founder of the pottery
Handcrafting and painting the old way.
Machine-produced product - one assumes the pile of clay below the machine goes back into the process.
And this is the raw clay, not sourced locally but bought in.
Loading up for the modern oven - upgraded from the old fire-pit that still exists.
If only we had more space in our cases.....
Monsaraz, a historical village, is one of the oldest in Portugal and maintains the magic from ancient times. Made of limestone and schist, stories are told of Kings (Moors and Portuguese), heroes and Knights Templar – the local heroes are obviously favoured – including the famous Giraldo (a mercenary who provided services to both Moors and Portuguese) but is renowned for his capture of Monsaraz from the then-ruling Moors and presenting it to the then-King of Portugal.
Monsaraz is surrounded by castle walls and at one end of the town there is a bullring (naturally no longer used). Fabio informed us that once a year there is still a “running of the bulls” through the narrow streets. It is one of the oldest villages in Portugal and listed as a museum village.
Lake Alqueva
Had a quick bite for lunch at the Tavern of the Knights Templar.
It was a good day and ended with a wine tasting in what was the old schoolhouse in Monsaraz, and the tasting included a comparison - the winery’s Reserve blend (delicious) that had been stored in Lake Alqueva (just a few km from Monsaraz) at a depth of 30 metres for 12 months, compared with the same wine that hadn’t done the submerged storage; definitely a significant improvement, and evidenced by the price differential.
A good note to finish this post:
So, we farewelled Fabio as he dropped us at the station in Evora and prepared ourselves for the long night of travel ahead, with an arrival time in Seville scheduled for 00.30am.
BTW....
The codfish/grain trade.
Fabio turned out to be – like most in Portugal – a lover of codfish, a.k.a. ‘bacalhau’. The cod arrives in Portugal salted and dried and must be soaked in water for 24 to 48 hours – with regular changes of the water - to dissolve out the salt before it can be cooked.
We had seen the other end of the process in Iceland and Norway last year, where most of the cod is caught, salted and dried. And we’d learned of the trade between Iceland/Norway and the southern European countries, with cod going South and wheat and grain going North, where short summers don’t allow for those crops.
A codfish stall caught our eye on our first day in Portugal (at the Porto market) and we’ve seen it everywhere along our way through the country.
This featured blog entry was written by IvorGlyn from the blog Portugal & Spain - 2025.
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