Evora - Roman ruins and a chapel made of bones

Evora was a short stop for us, just a couple of days before starting our workaway experience in Aljezur. We stayed at a campsite just outside of the old walled centre of Evora, which we were pleased to discover also had a swimming pool. This actually came in very useful as the temperatures reached over 40 degrees!

Setting up our tent was a real challenge as the ground was incredibly hard and we did not have a hammer or mallet. We managed to eventually after a very long time get two pegs into the ground using big rocks to bang them in, whilst bending every other peg we had. To keep the tent standing up we had to improvise by tying it with bungee cords to a tree and putting tent ropes under big rocks, but it eventually stayed up. After this taxing work we were ready for a relax by the pool!

Evora is actually quite a small city with a population of only 56,600 and does not really require more than one day to explore it. The old centre is where all the sites are (being an UNESCO world heritage site) and is almost totally enclosed by medieval walls. The social centre of Evora is Praca do Giraldo and this is where all the locals hang out and sip a coffee. This is the place that all roads lead to in Evora.

Praca do Giraldo

Just around the corner from Praca do Giraldo is the famous bone chapel (Capela dos Ossos) which is actually part of the Church of Sao Francisco. It is as the name implies a chapel made out of bones. The walls and pillars are totally covered in skulls and other bones from 5000 dead monks and cemented into place. There are also two dissecated corpses hanging from ropes on the walls, one of them being a childs corpse.

Inside the Chapel of Bones

The chapel was built by a Franciscan monk who wanted his fellow monks to contemplate life and remember the fact that it is transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance: Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos (“We bones that here are, for yours await").

Chapel of Bones with inscription above entrance

There are a couple of other quotes like this around the chapel: "Melior est die mortis die nativitatis (Better is the day of death than the day of birth)" and the poem: -

Where are you going in such a hurry traveler?

Stop … do not proceed;

You have no greater concern,

Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.

Recall how many have passed from this world,

Reflect on your similar end,

There is good reason to reflect

If only all did the same.

Ponder, you so influenced by fate,

Among the many concerns of the world,

So little do you reflect on death;

If by chance you glance at this place,

Stop … for the sake of your journey,

The more you pause, the further on your journey you will be.

All in all it made for quite a spooky experience. It would probably be even better if you could go in there at night.

Some of the other sites we saw included Evora Cathedral, Evora University, the cities aqueduct and a park that housed the Palace of Dom Manuel. Last but not least we also visited the Roman Temple (Templo de Diana) that was originally constructed around the 1st century AD but later destroyed during the 5th century by germanic invaders. However some of the base and pillars still survived to this day and were used for various buildings over the years until it was classified as an archaeological site in 1869 including a butchers and a castle stronghouse. It is still impressive to marvel at.

Evora University courtyard

Temple of Diana

After a long day in the old city centre we had another dip in the swimming pool before heading for an early bed, as the next day we had an early bus to catch to the south of Portugal to start our workaway experience.