Roman temples, medieval lanes and a chapel lined with human bones: Évora is anything but your average Portuguese town. Set among the rolling hills of the Alentejo, this city has character to spare. Between white houses with yellow trim, lively squares and centuries-old monuments, you keep stumbling on another slice of history. No wonder its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even so, plenty of travellers skip it for Lisbon, Porto or the Algarve. We think that’s a shame, because Évora is one of the highlights of a trip through Portugal. In this blog we take you past the best things to do in Évora and share our tips for your visit.
One more reason to go in 2027: Évora is European Capital of Culture that year, together with Liepāja in Latvia. Expect a full year of exhibitions, concerts and cultural events, in the city itself and across the rest of the Alentejo.
How do you get to Évora and where can you park?
Évora sits right in the heart of the Alentejo, about an hour and a half’s drive from Lisbon. That makes it a perfect stop on the way from Lisbon down to the Algarve.
Ideally, book a place to stay inside the city walls, in the old town. Do check whether your hotel has parking, because spaces are scarce in those narrow streets. If not, you can easily park outside the walls and walk in. The closest car park is by the aqueduct, right up against the walls, so you get a good look at the aqueduct straight away.
Our tip: book your rental car through Discover Cars. It compares all the big rental companies in one go, so you can easily find the best deal.
Where to stay in Évora?
The best place to stay in Évora is the old town itself, inside the walls. That’s also where most of the accommodation is, so almost every hotel, guesthouse or B&B is well located.
#1 Évora Olive Hotel sits in the middle of the old town, with stylish rooms, a pool and its own car park, which is worth its weight in gold inside the walls. From the roof terrace you look out over the rooftops to the cathedral.
#2 Noble House Essence Évora is a modern hotel in a centuries-old building in the historic centre. The Roman wall, the tiles and the vaulted ceilings have all been kept, so you’re quite literally sleeping among the history.
#3 Casa Morgado Esporão is an affordable B&B just a hundred metres from the cathedral, with its own pool and rooms with a kitchenette if you fancy cooking for yourself.
The 10 best things to do in Évora
#1 Évora Cathedral
Wherever you are in and around the city, the towers of Évora Cathedral poke up above the rooftops. Cathedrals can start to blur into one, but this one has something you rarely see and are even more rarely allowed to do: you can climb onto the roof. For us, that was the highlight of Évora. We were up there at sunset, and it was spectacular.
The cathedral dates from the twelfth century, which makes it one of the oldest in Portugal. It was built on a hill so its towers would be the highest point in the city, and they still are. Two medieval towers frame the front, one with a blue spire and the other with a whole crown of turrets, but it’s the unusual dome that really sets it apart. A narrow spiral staircase takes you up to the roof, where you see the towers and the dome up close and look out far across the city.
Don’t skip the cloister next door. An even narrower spiral staircase leads up to its roof, and down below is a courtyard with orange trees. One combined ticket gets you into the cathedral, onto the roof and into the cloister.
#2 The Chapel of Bones (Capela dos Ossos)
Next to the Igreja de São Francisco you’ll find Évora’s most macabre sight. The Capela dos Ossos is built from human bones, and this rather unusual chapel has become one of the city’s most popular attractions. It was built in the seventeenth century to remind visitors of their own mortality. And to free up some space in the city’s overflowing cemeteries.
The walls of the chapel, around 11 by 18 metres, are covered in bones and skulls, all taken from Évora’s local graveyards. Some say as many as 5,000 skulls went into it. Above the entrance hangs the famous line “Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos”: we bones that are here are waiting for yours.
#3 The University of Évora
One of Évora’s finest sights is its centuries-old university. Only Coimbra’s is older in Portugal, and as a tourist you can visit the historic buildings. Don’t expect to see every hall, because it’s still a working university. We visited on a Saturday and there were still groups of students in the lecture rooms, but peeking through the doorways was enough to be blown away by the huge blue and white azulejo scenes. Almost every wall is covered in these famous Portuguese tiles, which makes it one of the best places in the country to see them.
Even without the tiles, the sixteenth-century complex is a beauty. It started life as a Jesuit college, and you can still tell from the first courtyard with its colonnade, the Pátio dos Gerais.
Don’t just stay downstairs. One floor up is the baroque Sala dos Actos, and in the building behind the Pátio dos Gerais the chapel and the library are well worth a look.
#4 The aqueduct
Évora’s old aqueduct is an impressive piece of engineering. In the sixteenth century, more than 18 kilometres of it were built to bring fresh water into the city. It probably wasn’t an entirely original idea, as it’s thought to follow the line of an older Roman aqueduct. Modern as it was for its time, nobody got a tap at home. The water flowed into fountains around the city, and some of them are still there.
You get the best view of the aqueduct just outside the city walls. There’s also a footpath along a long stretch of it, if you feel like following it for a while.
#5 The Roman Temple (Temple of Diana)
Évora’s Roman temple is one of the city’s great icons. You’ll hear it called both the Roman Temple and the Temple of Diana, though the first is more accurate. It was never dedicated to the goddess Diana. That legend only appeared in the seventeenth century, and it stuck.
The temple stands close to the cathedral, on the highest point of the city. It was built in the first century AD in honour of Emperor Augustus, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in Évora. It was already restored in the second and third centuries, but the centuries that followed weren’t kind. After being part of the castle and even serving as a slaughterhouse, it was finally restored to what you see today.
Fourteen Corinthian columns still stand on a base of granite blocks. For the capitals, the Romans used marble from the area around Estremoz, and that marble town is well worth a visit in its own right. You can’t go inside the temple, but you can walk all the way round and see the columns from every side.
Want to see more Roman remains? The ruins of old baths have been excavated in the main hall of the town hall, and in an alley near the main square you can see parts of Roman houses.
→ Discover the 3 marble towns of Portugal: Estremoz, Borba and Vila Viçosa
#6 Praça do Giraldo
The beating heart of Évora is Praça do Giraldo, and it’s rarely quiet. Café terraces fill the middle of the square, the fountain splashes away and people stroll across the cobbles. The grand Igreja de Santo Antão stands at one end and is free to visit. Across the square is a bank building that’s just as grand.
Where does the name come from? The square is named after local hero Geraldo Geraldes, also known as Gerald the Fearless, who is said to have driven the Moors out of Évora. You’ll spot him on the city’s coat of arms too, on horseback with a sword.
#7 Évora’s old city walls
Évora’s old town is completely enclosed by walls. They have stood around the historic centre for centuries and still look ready to defend it. Most of what you see was built in the fifteenth century as a line of defence, complete with towers and fortifications. They clearly did their job: since Évora was taken from the Moors and became part of Portugal, it’s said never to have been conquered again.
You’ll pass through one of the gates anyway when you enter the city. But to really appreciate these walls with their battlements, gates and towers, take a walk along the outside. A footpath runs right alongside them almost all the way round.
#8 Jardim Público
Inside the historic walls, the Jardim Público is Évora’s green heart. These big city gardens are a treat on a sunny day. Peacocks wander about, and locals drink their coffee on the terrace of the kiosk in the park.
Completing the picture is the old royal palace, the Palácio de Dom Manuel I, right in the middle of the park. Portugal’s kings built here from the fifteenth century onwards, but today only the Galeria das Damas is still standing. Its Moorish touches give it a slightly fairytale look among the greenery.
Look out for the ruins in the gardens too, the Ruínas Fingidas. If you know a little Portuguese, you’ll get the joke: they’re fake ruins. They were built in the nineteenth century as decoration, a popular romantic touch at the time, using fragments of crumbling monuments from the city and the surrounding area.
#9 Wander the streets
This tip may sound like a cliché, but it really fits a town like Évora. Don’t just tick off the sights. Take time to wander the streets without a plan. The cobbled lanes, the white houses with yellow trim, the bright flowers, the glimpses through archways and gates: the streets themselves are Évora’s finest attraction.
Tip: when all that wandering makes you hungry, head to the vegetarian restaurant Salsa Verde for lunch. You fill your own plate at the buffet (we wanted to try absolutely everything) and pay by weight.
#10 Cromeleque dos Almendres
Just outside Évora lies one of the great mysteries of the Alentejo. The Cromeleque dos Almendres was only rediscovered in the 1960s, but the stones have stood here for thousands of years, with the oldest parts around 7,000 years old. Almost a hundred round and oval stones are set out in several rings, making it one of the largest and oldest stone circles in Europe.
Just like at Stonehenge, which is a good deal younger by the way, nobody knows exactly what the circle was for. Some stones still show carvings, and the layout seems to have something to do with the position of the sun and moon. About a kilometre and a half away stands a lone menhir that almost certainly belongs with the circle.
Évora’s sights on the map
More tips for your trip to Évora
Our pickStaying the night in Évora? Browse all hotels in Évora on Booking.com
Portugal was made for road trips. Rent a car at Lisbon, Porto or Faro airport with Discover Cars and compare the big rental companies in one go.
Fancy doing it by camper, like we did? Rent a campervan in Portugal with Campervan Planet.
Prefer everything arranged? Browse Portugal tours on TourRadar.
No flight yet? Compare flights to Lisbon or Porto.
Keen to hear the stories behind the sights? Join an Évora walking tour, including the Chapel of Bones, on GetYourGuide.
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