A Pleasant Morning Stroll In Evora

Evora is surrounded by cork trees and olive trees in the Alentejo province, in my estimation one of the two best wine regions in Portugal (the Duoro being the other).  Not quite 60,000 people, Evora was a Roman town for over 600 hundred years.  And, it boasts history from the Romans to the Moors to Portuguese royalty.

After breakfast in the beautiful dining room of the convent, we drove and parked for free just outside the city walls, right by the 16th century aqueduct.  

Aqueducts are cool.

Fountains are cool.

We rambled on into town past more city walls and gates and headed to Praca do Giraldo, named after a local hero (Local Hero is a GREAT movie if you haven't seen it -- has nothing to do with Portugal, just Northern Scotland, but writing "local hero" reminded me of the movie).

I'm back now.  

Giraldo the Fearless was the Christian knight who led the surprise attack in 1165 to retake Evora from the Moors.  He was made governor of the town in appreciation for his efforts.  

King Joao III lived in Evora off and on for 30 years.  A fervent believer in the Inquisition (not just for Spain, but Portugal too), Joao was king when the first victims were burned in the square in 1543.

We were hoping to take the walking tour that the tourism office offers at 10am, but it turns out they don't offer it on Sundays.

So instead we did the walking tour in the Rick Steves Portugal book.  

For such a small town, Evora has a lot of cool stuff.

Giraldi on top of the lightpost.  A local hero,

his horse is stepping on the heads of two

dead Moors.  Memories are long here.

Roman arch gate into the city.  The stones

leading up to the gate are some of the 

original Roman pavement stones.

Moorish influence on the balcony.

Interesting fountain (wasn't on).

This square, which features the ineptly-named Jardim Diana (Diana Garden), is the highest point in the city and affords spectacular views of the lower city and out into the countryside.  It's ineptly-named because it was believed that the Roman temple was dedicated to the Roman goddess Diana.  It was not.  It was dedicated to the Caesar at the time.  The 14 columns and marble capitals are about all that are left.  We skipped the museum of Evora, and walked past the building that house the Tribunal of the Inquisition.

Roman forum columns are cool.

Another Roman forum, another selfie.

The center of the Portuguese

Inquisition?  Not cool at all.