Évora Cathedral
Portugal's largest medieval cathedral, with a Gothic cloister, sacred art museum and rooftop terraces.
Begun in the late twelfth century on the highest point of the walled town, Évora Cathedral is the largest medieval cathedral in Portugal and a core part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage listing. Its granite west front is flanked by two unmatched towers, one capped with conical tiles, and the main portal carries carved figures of the Apostles attributed to a fourteenth-century workshop. The building marks the shift from Romanesque solidity to Gothic height, with a lantern tower rising over the crossing above the nave.
Later centuries reshaped the interior. The Baroque chancel in coloured marble was designed by the German-born architect Johann Friedrich Ludwig between 1718 and 1746, and a monumental organ from the sixteenth century survives in the choir. A fourteenth-century Gothic cloister with corner stairs adjoins the church, and the former choirboys' college now houses the Sacred Art Museum. Visitors may climb to the roof terraces, which run beside the lantern tower and look out over Évora and the Alentejo plain.
Highlights
- Carved Apostle figures on the fourteenth-century main portal
- Roof terraces beside the lantern tower, the city's highest viewpoint
- Gothic cloister of 1322-1340 with corner staircases
- Sacred Art Museum: reliquary of the Holy Wood and Gothic ivory Virgin
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