Evora and the Alentejo plains

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Portugal produces most of the world’s cork, from cork oak trees -- evergreens with leaves, numbers painted on them, and a strange “naked” appearance -- which dot the Alentejo landscape. When trees are over twenty-five years of age and every nine or ten summers thereafter, the bark is stripped off, leaving only a thin inner layer for protection. Each tree produces several hundred pounds of valuable bark per harvest. When it is stripped away the date is painted onto the tree to ensure that the required time passes before they are stripped again. The trees are at least forty years old before their inner layer is sufficiently airtight to be made into wine corks.

Tourists usually think of the plains as a yawn-inspiring buffer between the sunny Algarve and the historic North. It does have many historic towns and villages, though, one of which definitely deserves an extended visit, no matter which direction you’re heading. I’m speaking of Evora, www.manorhouses.com/unesco/whevora.html a walled UNESCO historic site built on a hill about 70 miles (110 km) east of Lisbon. It’s often called “the museum city”, because it contains artifacts going back to Caesar’s time, and for some reason was not harmed by the great 1755 earthquake that destroyed most of the historic buildings everywhere else in the country. Every architectural style is represented: Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, and Baroque.

Although the town has spread far beyond its well-preserved 14^th century walls, the historic centre, about half a square mile (100+ hectares) in size, contains interesting structures from every period of its history. There are a distinguished university, four palaces, and several museums , but the most frequent tourist destination is Saint Francis’ Church, with its famous bone chapel. Over the entrance is the inscription : “Our bones are waiting for yours”. On the wall behind the second pillar on the right are two human skeletons that are permanently hung there. Rumor has it that they were two adulterous lovers, but nobody knows if that is true, or just what happened on their journey from bedded bliss to eternal ignominy.

We splurged on the deluxe Pousada dos Loios, an elegant 33-room 500-year-old former monastery. Almost every piece of furniture there is an historic artifact. The cloisters have been glassed in and transformed into an elegant dining room, with an adjoining lounge reminiscent of a posh private club. Guests sleep in the “cells” of former monks, some of whom may be among the ±5,000 “reposing” in the bone chapel. To bring their relatively tiny accommodations into the 20^th century every second cell was converted into an en-suite bathroom. Since the monks of old were quite short, today you have to duck down to go through the low doorways. The furniture is original, with armoires and some beds elaborately hand-carved and inlaid with rare woods from around the world, while others are graced with elegant canopies. As for dining, the food was as superb as the surroundings, and of course the price reflected the quality! Overall, it was a great one-time extravagance.

After leaving Evora, we were off to Lisbon, the once-glittering metropolis which had known splendour, followed in 1755 by tragedy and then by centuries of decline, and which is now rediscovering itself as the worthy capital of a proud seafaring nation.

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Comments

[Rainyb]

I do remember the stripped cork trees & the stacks of cork sitting nearby - fascinating ;o)

[Rainyb]

Fabulous! Sadly, I missed Evora waaaaaa

[Rainyb]

OMG!!

[Rainyb]

Great shot!