Continuing on by a circuitous route and bypassing Oporto and Lisboa, we eventually arrived in Evora. A larger walled city of some 45,000 which is actually about 1/2 of what it was at it’s heyday during medieval times. This is due to the Spanish usurpation of the power of the monarchy seated here when it took the throne in 1580 and when future Portuguese monarchs chose to live near Lisbon. During the interim the university at Evora was closed for 400 years. It reopened only after the Portuguese revolution in 1974.

We spent our nights at the Casa Palma, a lovely pensione filled with antiques. I was charmed when I realized that the familiar aroma, smell, aura of the place was exactly that of the homes of my family in Opelousas, Louisiana when I was a child. Even Senhora Margarita reminded me of my aunts except that she spoke Portuguese.

The Cathedral and several other churches in this city were constructed of red stone, which contrasted against the white mortar was quite alluring to my mind and inconsistent with most of the other grande monuments to the gothic of my acquaintance, which are for the most part built of a creme colored stone.

Temple of Diana

Not far from the cathedral is a Roman temple, which still has pillars on 3 of it’s sides and may owe it’s finely preserved state to the fact that it was used as a slaughter house until the late 1800’s.

These Bones Wait for Your Bones

The most intriguing Catholic edifice however is the church of Sao Francisco. Within it’s confines is a chapel, the Capela dos Ossos, who’s walls are covered in an amazing fashion with the skulls and bones of over 5,000 monks who once resided there. This is a most clever, if macabre, way to conserve on burial space. It made Rosemary a bit queasy and she left wondering if all we were to do in Evora was to visit monuments to the subjugation of the populace by the church, bit I lingered a while and noticed the motto engraved above the entrance to the Capela. "Nos Ossos Que Aquiestamos Pelos Vossos Esparamos." These bones are waiting for your bones. Macabre indeed!

Also whilst here we attended a Checkov play "Los Tres Irmas" (3 sisters.) Now we had seen this play before at the La Jolla Playhouse in English and were able to follow it’s depressing plot, but at the intermission we felt compelled to exit the Theatro Garcia de Redende, another of those exquisite little jewel box, mini opera houses full of gilt, red curtains and encrusted balconies, which had been lovingly restored in the not so distant past and the true reason for our attendance. We do truly love to take in cultural events in foreign lands even though we are oft unable to understand what is really going on just in order to experience the old theaters, opera houses and music halls of antiquity. It puts one in a different space and time and makes one feel more connected to where they are and to the history of the place.

As an aside here I shall tell of an appetizer we had with dinner before the performance in the "Almedina Resturante," which was the first bistro we had been to in Portugal that didn’t have the TV on. I found it curious and perhaps it is a sign of the quality of the establishments we visited, which tended to be regional ones frequented by locals, that all had the TV on, sometimes two sets on different channels. But to the appetizer. It was garbonzos, or chick peas if you must, first cooked and then marinated in olive oil with raw garlic, onions and cilantro with a bit of lemon. Quite wonderful and one which I shall try to replicate.

While on the subject of food... we felt compelled while here to try at another establishment, complete with the obligatory TV, the Portuguese national passion. Dried salted codfish, ‘balahausca,’ which can be prepared, and is, I am assured, in a thousand different ways. Perhaps it was because we were predisposed to feel so, but re-constituted, dehydrated and salted fish was/is not our cup of soup, no, I/we prefer our fish fresh, thank you!

Aqueduct

In Evora the aqueduct inside the city walls has had houses and shoppes built beneath it’s arches. I found it a good use of space, even if odd, but Rosemary feels the beauty of the aqueduct has been compromised.