Cathedral of Évora

Overview

The Cathedral of Évora is the largest medieval cathedral in Portugal, a rose-granite fortress-church on the highest point of the city begun in 1186 after Geraldo Sem Pavor took Évora from the Moors and rebuilt in early Gothic between 1280 and 1340 on the plan of Lisbon’s; its two mismatched towers, its lantern ringed with turrets and its battlemented walls are the skyline of the Alentejo capital, a World Heritage site since 1988.

The Apostles of the 1330s on the main portal are the finest Gothic sculpture in the country; inside are the Manueline choir with its Antwerp stalls, the oldest working organ in Portugal, a pregnant Virgin, João V’s Baroque main chapel by the architect of Mafra, the 14th-century cloister, and a museum with a reliquary set with 1,426 gems; the roof, reached from the cloister, is the view. Open daily 09:00 to 17:00.

History

The first modest church went up between 1186 and 1204 and was enlarged from about 1280 into the present three-aisled Gothic building; the cloister followed from 1317 to 1340, the Esporão chapel in the 1520s, and the main chapel was rebuilt in Roman Baroque between 1718 and 1746 by João Frederico Ludovice for João V, in green Italian, white Montes Claros and red and black Sintra marble. The flags of Vasco da Gama’s fleet are believed to have been blessed here in 1497; Cardinal Henrique, archbishop of Évora, became king here for two years after Alcácer-Quibir in 1578; and in the 16th and 17th centuries the School of Évora, Manuel Mendes, Duarte Lobo and Filipe de Magalhães, made the cathedral the centre of Portuguese polyphony.

Visiting

The west front has two 16th-century towers, one with a tiled spire, framing a narthex whose Gothic portal carries the twelve Apostles on marble columns, perhaps by Master Pero and Telo Garcia. Inside, the nave is white mortar over bare granite, a pointed barrel vault with a triforium, the transept lit by two rose windows, the morning star and the mystic rose, and the crossing crowned by a dome and octagonal lantern; in the first bays is Diogo de Arruda’s Manueline high choir with oak stalls of 1562 carved with hunting scenes and farm life, and near the door the organ of about 1544 by Heitor Lobo.

In the middle of the nave the Baroque altar holds the 15th-century Nossa Senhora do Ó, the pregnant Virgin, facing a Renaissance Gabriel attributed to Olivier of Ghent; the Esporão chapel in the left transept has Chanterene’s marble portal and the right transept the tomb of the humanist André de Resende. The cloister, heavy Gothic in granite with an Evangelist at each corner and the tomb of Bishop Pedro who built it, has a spiral stair to the roof and the towers. The museum has Cardinal Henrique’s Manueline sceptre, a 13th-century French ivory Virgin whose body opens into a triptych, the Santo Lenho reliquary with its 840 diamonds and 402 rubies, and paintings by Gregório Lopes and Cristóvão de Figueiredo; the original Flemish altarpiece of about 1500, in 13 panels, is in the Évora Museum next door.

Tips

• Buy the full ticket with cloister, museum and roof; the roof is the reason and the church alone is not.
• The Apostles on the portal are best in morning light, when the narthex is in shade and the figures lit from the side.
• The Évora Museum beside the cathedral has the Flemish panels and the Roman finds; do it in the same hour.
• Évora is one of the hottest cities in Portugal; the cathedral is cool, the roof at 15:00 in July is not.

Nearby

• Roman Temple: across the square.
• Évora Museum: next door.
• Capela dos Ossos: eight minutes downhill.
• Praça do Giraldo: five minutes down the Rua 5 de Outubro.