Page 299 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

Must See
6 follow a well-signposted trail
for 8.3 km (5 miles) along
Largo da Porta a surviving 9-km- (6-mile-)
de Moura long stretch. EAT
The western entrance to this
square is guarded by the 9 Fialho
vestiges of a Moorish gateway. A historic, award-
Both the domed Casa Soure Walls winning restaurant
and the double arches of the specializing in
belvedere on Casa Cordovil at The fortifications that have recreating traditional
the opposite end, show the protected Évora down the recipes, with a good
Arab influence on architecture centuries form two incomplete wine list. Book
in Évora. The central fountain, concentric circles. The inner in advance.
looking like some futur istic orb, ring, of which only fragments ⌂ Travessa das
surprisingly dates back to 1556. are discernible, is Roman, Mascarenhas 16, Évora
from perhaps as early as the § 266 703 079 ¢ Mon
1st century AD, with Moorish ¡¡¡
7 and medieval additions – the
two stubby towers that give
Fundação Eugénio the Largo da Porta de Moura Momentos
de Almeida its name mark an Arab gate. The chef guides you
In the 14th century, new through the menu of
⌂ Páteo de São Miguel the day here, which
# Tue–Sun ¢ Public hols walls were built to encompass features local organic
the growing town. Completed
This avant-garde modern under Fernando I, these had produce. Unlike much
exhibition space plays host to 40 towers and 10 gates, Portuguese cuisine, the
fish and meat dishes
local and national artists and including the Porta de are accompanied by
the occasional inter national Alconchel, which still beautifully presented
name, such as Marcel faces the Lisbon road. salads or vegetables
Duchamp. It also promotes When João IV was defiantly rather than chips.
the performing arts, staging declared king in 1640 (p45),
regular concerts and reci tals. major fortifications were ⌂ Rua 5 de Outubro 61B,
Évora § 925 161 423
The building provides access erected in anticipation of ¢ Mon & Wed–Fri L, Tue
to the Carriage Museum, and Spanish attack, and it is these
tours to the nearby Cartuxa 17th-century walls which are ¡¡¡
winery can be booked here. most evident today. The walls
withstood much battering from
the besieging Spanish in 1663.
8
Aqueduto da
Água de Prata
Évora’s aqueduct was built
between 1531 and 1537 by the
town’s own eminent architect,
Francisco de Arruda. The
construction was regarded
with wonder, and is even des-
cribed in Os Lusíadas, the epic
by Luís de Camões (p184). It
originally carried water as far
as the Praça do Giraldo. It was
damaged in the 17th century
during the Restoration War
with Spain, but visitors can

Évora’s walls, bathed
in a gloriously golden
evening light
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