Still Hot: Évora, Part 2

On our first day in the environs of Évora we were hitting up ancient stone arrangements that were by and large out in the middle of nowhere. We still had more sites that we wanted to see, but to make sure that we didn’t run out of gas before checking off some key items we decided to focus our second day of tourism on the city itself. We’d save anything that we missed from either day as a good third day for the trip and this way minimize the chance that we’d miss out on “can’t miss” attractions. “Hey guys, you were in Évora, how did you like the chapel of bones?” “Oh, um, we didn’t make it?” That’s never a fun conversation. The heat was going to stay in the high-90s for our entire visit so there was never any serious thought to skipping the day and staying in the shade – might as well have stayed home at that point. Instead, we were up early, again (ugh), and into town.

John, did you just say “chapel of bones?” Why yes, yes I did! One of the most-remarked sights to see in all of Évora is the “Capela dos Ossos” – literally “Chapel of Bones”. Said chapel is lined with human bones, the remains of people who by and large had hoped for just this honor. Seriously, it was mostly the Franciscan monks who had dibs and anyone else in town had to play their cards just right in order to spend eternity stacked up like cordwood. I may kid, but they were (ahem) deadly serious about this stuff abck in the day; it was a tremendous honor to be so interred.

Well, it was an honor except for two people, whose mummified remains are still on display to this day. As the story goes, a man and his son treated their wife/mother quite badly for years. The mother cursed them both on her death bed, saying more-or-less that y’all will neither touch sky nor earth, reaching neither heaven nor hell. Now, why this lady’s curse carried any weight with the monks we do not know, but carry weight it did, and for hundreds of years the increasingly mummified bodies of father and son were kept suspended in the chapel. They only took them down in 2021!! And even still, to this day, they are displayed in glass cases, still not being interred. We can only hope to achieve such aggrieved cursing someday.

Another key location is the “Temple of Diana”, although as Roman ruins go it’s only exciting if you’re grading on a bit of a curve. (Yes, we are incredibly aware of what a privileged life we’re leading that we can stack rank ancient Roman ruins. Nevertheless, once you’ve been to Paestum it’s not going to stun you into insensibility merely to encounter a few upright columns.) Plus, it turns out that nobody really called it “that “the Temple of Diana” until a 17^th century monk made up a legend whole cloth and it took hold. The site was actually dedicated to the cult of Augustus around the 1^st century CE. Still, it’s neat to see something like that standing in the middle of the town square in southern Portugal.

There were numerous smaller pleasures, including the aqueduct that runs into the city which we also encountered miles away the day before. Speaking only for myself, it’s one thing to understand what aqueducts are in an academic sense and entirely another to realize just what a massive undertaking they were. Thousands of years ago they were building miles and miles of arching stone paths, straight as an arrow, to bring water to where they wanted it. (The featured map at the top of this post is a section of the aqueduct running through the surrounding fields.) And to top it off the center of town, the “old city” as it were, is surrounded by thirty-foot-high stone walls that are in magnificent shape, whether through rugged longevity or careful maintenance I cannot say. It was a great, hot, day, with more still to come.