Évora Private Tour from Lisbon

Located inside of the Church of São Francisco de Évora, we´ll visit one of the most extraordinary Christian temples in Portugal and the famous Bone Chapel as well, a place full of details and an increadable history.

The city’s Great Square is an urban space that perhaps has its origins as a public spacer in the late centuries of the city’s Muslim occupation. However, it was only from the 13th century onwards that it began to be structured as the center of Évora, when the fair began to be held, regulated by the Concordat of D. Dinis in 1286, and to establish itself as a commercial center. The old arcades stand out, as well as the Church of Santo Antão, built in 1577 by Alfonso Álvares, the same man who designed the Fountain that punctuates the space. A monumental work, which preserves praise to King Sebastián. In 1869, the square was given the name it still holds today: Giraldo square, in memory of the knight who reconquered the city from the Muslims in the 12th century.

The Convent of Graça is a royal work, designed by Chanterenne, projected by Miguel de Arruda, and supported by the erudition of the humanist and first Portuguese archaeologist André de Resende. Its forms already display principles of early mannerism. It is a full manifestation of Évora in the 1930s of the 16th centuries. On the frieze of the temple, D. João III marks his presence: JONNIS III PATRIS PATRIAE. Crowning the facade. The monumental sculptures are solemn Renaissance iconography, elevated to the status of urban myth by the romanticism of the centuries.

Sponsored by the farmer Ramalho Perdigão and designed with pen and paper, free of charge, by the Italian scenographer Giuseppe Cinatti, the Public Garden was a work of notable sociocultural dimension for the city in the second half of the 19th century and provided the note of lightness that the old medieval town needed to face contemporary times. After deconstructing what was left of the old royal gardens, Cinatti would take almost two decades to complete his work: a fenced boulevard, inspired by the new European trends in leisure spaces and he did so by finishing it with the fantasy of ‘‘fake ruins’’, in 1866.

The Christian temple of Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia is one of the last works of the Eborense Renaissance, announcing a severe baroque style. The first stone was laid in 1554, and the façade was altered in the second half of the 18th century, but it was the work carried out on the interior, during the time of D. João V (1689-1750), that gave in an unusual elegance and refinement. It is perhaps the most delicate set of gilded carvings and tiles in Évora, boasting simply remarkable quality and harmony. It is in the symbiosis and balance between these two registers that its simple beauty is defined, undoubtedly one of Évora’s greatest legacies to Portuguese art.

After visited all the places in this experience, we will head back to Lisbon to make the drop off at your Hotel.