Arriving into Évora at about 12.30pm, it was lovely to have a beautiful sunny weather, especially since I was later told by people in Lisbon that the weather had been rather wet in town.
Not only was Évora nice and sunny, it got really warm too, as I walked around without a jacket on.
Upon walking out of the bus station, I passed by a cemetery and I decided to check it out. There were a number of large niches around, some were pretty elaborate - it kind of reminds me of the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires.
The walk to the town square and the Giraldo Square Fountain took about 15 mins, passing through a fortress wall.
There were some interesting shops including this one which sold nostalgic tin cans.
The town of Évora is small enough to easily navigate on foot. I soon came across Templo Romano Évora, a pretty well preserved roman temple that was said to be built in the first half of the 1st century AD.
Not too far from the Roman Temple was the Cathedral of Évora. There was a cost to enter, so I didn't bother to enter.
I was starting to feel hungry, and soon came across Fábrica dos Pastéis and headed in to grab a Nata. Need to meet my 1 Nata a day average 😝
I soon found myself back at the main square and grabbed a quick pasta at a cafe, before making my way towards the Chapel of Bones, the key reason I came to Évora.
Along route, I came across Graça church, which looked uniquely different from other churches in the area with the statues on the top corners of the building. The inside was rather simple though, and looked like it could do with some repairs.
Igreja e Mosteiro de São Francisco was just a few mins walk from here. The interiors were different from most churches with the painted mosaic tiles on one corner of the church. It also led into another room, which was said to be built to be used as a meeting room.
Just look at that oval table, and the decor of the room.
And finally, the Chapel of Bones (Évora).
It is a small interior chapel located next to the entrance of the Church of St. Francis.
The Chapel gets its name because the interior walls are covered and decorated with human skulls and bones.
The Capela dos Ossos was built by Franciscan monks. An estimated 5,000 corpses were exhumed to decorate the walls of the Chapel.
In the 16th century there were almost 42 monastic cemeteries in the city, which occupied too much space. As a solution, monks extracted bones from the ground and used them to build and “decorate” this chapel.
The bones, which came from ordinary people who were buried in Évora's medieval cemeteries, were arranged by the Franciscans in a variety of patterns.
Their goal: to convey the message of temporariness and fragility of human life. This message clearly comes across to visitors of Bones Chapel right at its entrance through the sign “We bones that are here, for yours we wait”.
There are also two desiccated corpses, one is that of a child, and some of the skulls have wordings on them.
The Chapel of Bones is located inside a bigger building that houses a Musuem for the Church of St. Francis. I quickly walked through most of it.
But within the building, there was also a panoramic viewpoint of the area and a good top view of Royal Palace of Évora. The Royal Palace of Évora is now used as a town hall. The gardens also had peacocks and peahens in them.
Time to head to the bus station to catch the 4pm bus back into Lisbon.
By the time I got back to the Sete Rios terminal, it was about 6pm. It was also drizzly, so it was a good thing the hostel was hosting dinner tonight, so I get to stay in.
Apparently this is a typical Portuguese dish - Bacalhau with potatoes. It does look like rice rather than potatoes.
The rain had stopped by the time dinner ended and I decided to pop out briefly to Praça do Comércio. I wanted to see the night view of the Arc and the surrounding area before officially calling it a night!
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