Full Day Évora and Arraiolos – 9 Hours
This tour invites you to know Évora, classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage City, due to its
excellent preservation along the centuries. This town has been developing itself without losing its
primitive characteristics. That’s why it deserved this “prize” from UNESCO.
Meeting with your private guide at the hotel lobby. Drive to Évora for a beautiful sightseeing tour
by car (it takes less than 90 minutes from Lisbon).
In Évora, we will have enough time to walk in its historical centre and “feel” the atmosphere of
this town. After reaching the walled city our guide will invite you to visit the enigmatic church of
St. Francis and its Chapel of the Bones. The tour will continue up the narrow streets of the old
town reaching the Giraldo square where the Inquisition once had its headquarters. We will
explore the millennium old Roman Temple and have a glimpse at the 12th century cathedral. In
the already distant 16th century Évora thrived with culture and tradition in its university as much
as it still does today. During a short visit to the century old university courtyard you will
understand why was Évora once the second most important city of Portugal.
After this busy and rich in cultural morning we will have time to taste the flavours of Alentejo
cuisine, in one of the many famous restaurants of the city.
After lunch the tour will continue to the "eternal bride" town of Arraiolos, where you will meet
the typical Alentejo village: the white immaculate houses (that gave the town its nickname)
framed with blue or yellow stripes, the castle at the top of the village that keeps guard over the
fields of Alentejo, the typical slow pace of its people that know very well the “art of living” and
the embroiderers working in the streets making the famous and genuine Arraiolos carpets. These
carpets still preserve some of the most obvious elements of the Moorish culture of Portugal. As
you stroll slowly in the streets of Arraiolos you will see the women of the town trying to preserve
this piece of the Portuguese culture as time slowly passes by...
Entrance Fees included: St. Francis Church, Bones Chapel, Cathedral and Cloisters University
On Sundays some of the monuments are closed.