Portugal, Evora

Evora is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The city proper has 41,159 inhabitants, and the municipality has a total area of 1,307.0 km² with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the district of Évora and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 parishes, and is located in the District of Évora.

Évora was ranked first in a study concerning competitiveness of the 18 Portuguese district capitals - according to a study made by Minho University economic researchers and published in Público newspaper on 30th September 2006.

Évora is ranked number 3 in the Portuguese most livable cities survey of living conditions published yearly by Expresso.

History

The Alentejo Province is a region of wide plains to the south of the Tagus River (Rio Tejo, in Portuguese). In the heart of this region, at a distance of 130 km from Lisbon, lies the city of Évora.

Évora has a history dating back more than two millennia. It was known as Ebora by the Lusitanians, who made the town their regional capital. The Romans conquered the town in 57 B.C. and expanded it into a walled town. Vestiges from this period (city walls and ruins of Roman baths) still remain.

Liberalitas Julia (Julian generosity). The city grew in importance because it lay at the junction of several important routes. During his travels through Gaul and Lusitania, Pliny the Elder also visited this town and mentioned it in his book Naturalis Historia as Ebora Cerealis, because of its many surrounding wheatfields.

During the barbarian invasions, Evora came under the rule of the Visigothic king Leovirgild in 584. The town was later raised to the status of a cathedral city.

The city became the seat of an archbishopric in 1540. The university was founded by the Jesuits in 1559, and it was here that great European Masters such as the Flemish humanists Nicolaus Clenardus (Nicolaas Cleynaerts) (1493-1542), Johannes Vasaeus (Jan Was) (1511-1561) and the theologian Luis de Molina passed on their knowledge

Today, the historical centre has about 4000 buildings and an area of 1.05 km².

Geography

Évora (latitude 38.33º, longitude 7º57', altitude 300 m) is situated in Alentejo (southern Portugal). It is the chief city of the district. The seat of the municipality is the city of Évora, composed by the parishes of Santo Antão, São Mamede and Sé e São Pedro in the historical centre and the urban parishes of Bacelo, Horta das Figueiras, Malagueira and Senhora da Saúde outside the ancient city walls where most of the population in fact reside.