Évora – Chilling Chapel Of Bones

Évora, capital of the Alentejo region, has a compact historic centre where most of the attractions are conveniently located within the ancient city walls. And one of its main attractions is a chapel decorated entirely with human bones.

The city is a treasure of a place with a UNESCO protected historic centre since 1986 and a wealth of interesting attractions including the rather chilling Chapel of Bones, one of the main reasons why I was keen to visit this town. Yet we soon found that there was more to Évora than just the Chapel of bones.

We arrived on Easter Sunday and found the town bustling with visitors creating a nice lively atmosphere, particular in the town’s main square, Praça do Giraldo, where everyone had been congregating. We found the tourist information centre here in the main town square and soon got hold of a good map with all the attractions we wanted to visit.

Praça do Giraldo

Unfortunately we found that many of the attractions such as the museums, churches, and the Chapel of Bones, were closed due to the bank holiday. So we decided to just wander around the charming historic centre and grab a coffee and cake at one of the many lovely outdoor cafes.

We also walked to the ruins of the Roman Temple, which is believed to date back to the first century AD and is one of the most complete ancient Roman ruins found in Portugal. It is sometimes referred to as the Temple de Diana (albeit wrongly, since Diana was the ancient Roman goddess of the moon, hunting and chastity ).

Roman Temple

Another attraction that was open on the Easter Sunday was the main Cathedral of Évora known as the Sé de Évora. It is one of the oldest and most important monuments of the city. From the tower we managed to get a great birds eye view of the city.

View from the tower of the Sé de Évora.

Sé de Évora tower from the roof

Reconquered from the Arab rulers in 1166 by Geraldo Sem Pavor (Geraldo the Fearless) Évora’s Christian Cathedral begins life first as a more modest building, but was enlarged circa 1280-1340. It is the largest of the Medieval Cathedrals in Portugal and a great example of Gothic architecture. We also explored the Cathedral museum and cloisters. All very enjoyable and interesting.

It was next day, Monday when we were able to enter the much-anticipated Chapel of Bones

It certainly is a rather strange and macabre attraction, but nevertheless a very compelling place to visit.

Pillars of human bones

Whole walls decorated with human bones

A stark reminder of the fragile and transitory nature of life

The chapel is connected to the Church of São Francisco. Decorated entirely with human bones from about five thousand monks who have lived in this area. The chapel was started in the 16th century by a monk who wanted to remind everyone of the brief and transitory nature of life. The bones are arranged in a “creative” manner and there are also two desiccated corpses lying inside glass display cases.

A desiccated body lies inside a glass display

The somewhat chiiling inscription above the chapel entrance translates as: “Our bones here, for yours await”

“Our bones here, for yours await”

It is an unnerving and sombre experience to see all those skeletons of human heads, arms and legs that used to belong to a living, breathing individual are now just a mere object of decoration. It does make you stop and think about how ephemeral life is, and that death will come to us all one day. We are both at an age where we grow ever more aware that our time is not limitless, and that fitting in all the things we want to do  means getting off our butts NOW and doing them while we still can… but if ever we needed a reminder, this was certainly it!

Would you be happy to have your bones decorating this little chapel?

We stayed overnight at an “off grid” parking next to the Prata Aqueduct, the 11 miles/18 km structure originally built to provide water for the city of Évora which is now another of its tourist attractions. Our GPS location was N38.5766, W7.9149.

From our home on wheels we had a lovely view of the ancient Aqueduto da Água de Prata (Agua de Prata Aqueduct), and free overnight parking

The Aqueduct was built between 1531 and 1537 by Francisco de Arruda, who was apparently also responsible for the building of the iconic Belem Tower in Lisbon. It is possible to walk or cycle along the Aqueduct for about 5miles/8km.

I recommend a visit to Évora either as a day trip from Lisbon or if possible an overnight stay. There is lots to see here, although most of the main attractions can certainly be seen on a day trip.

After a spot of food shopping at a small supermarket near our overnight stay, we left Évora bound for Sintra and the next leg of our journey continues.