Centro Histórico de Évora

Évora, in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal, has a history of more than twenty centuries. The Romans took it in 57 BC and made it a walled town, and its 1st-century temple, popularly called the Temple of Diana, survived because it was built into a medieval structure. The Moors ruled from 715 until September 1165, when Gerald the Fearless took the town in a surprise attack.

In the 15th century the Portuguese kings began to live here often, and the city's golden age began. Convents and royal palaces were built, among them the church of São Francisco, and the Manueline style carried on into major works of the 16th century. The cathedral, completed in the 13th century, is its best-known medieval building. Jesuit teaching at the university made Évora the second city of Portugal, but the university declined fast after the Marquis of Pombal expelled the Jesuits in 1759.

The low whitewashed houses, with azulejo tiles and wrought-iron balconies, date from the 16th to the 18th century and line narrow medieval streets. The earthquake of 1755 that devastated Lisbon largely spared Évora. Its monuments strongly influenced Portuguese architecture in Brazil. The historic centre was inscribed in 1986.