About an hour and a half from Lisbon, Evora is a popular destination for Portuguese and foreign visitors alike. The biggest draw is undoubtedly the food and wine: both Evora and the wider Alentejo region in which it is located are renowned for the quality of the cuisine.
However, there is more to this attractive city than just the food. The compact city center is home to several architectural and cultural highlights, the best known of which is also the most macabre. Capela dos Ossos literally translates to “The Chapel of Bones,” and human bones are exactly what you’ll find inside. Thousands of them, in fact, were stacked from floor to ceiling along each wall of this little chapel.
It’s a must-see for many visitors to Evora, so if you plan to visit it yourself while in town, you’ll find everything you need to know here.
Background
The chapel dates from the 16th century, when the elders of the local church were faced with a dilemma. Nearby cemeteries were filling up and taking up valuable land near the city, and something had to be done. In the end, the decision was made to close the cemeteries and relocate the deceased’s bones in a dedicated chapel.
Never forgetting a teaching moment, the monks decided to put those bones on public display instead of hiding them. In this way, the visitors were expected to be forced to reflect on their own mortality and modify their behavior accordingly while they were still alive.
The success of this approach is lost to history, but the end result was the Capela dos Ossos that we see today. Somewhere, more than 5,000 bones have been stacked on top of each other, taking up almost every possible inch of space. While most of the bones are separated, in a particularly horrible twist, a pair of nearly complete skeletons can also be found hanging on the walls.
In case the message was not clear enough for medieval visitors, the message “We are here, we are waiting for you” (“we, the bones that are here, we are waiting for yours”) was inscribed above the entrance , and it remains there even now.
how to visit
The Chapel of the Bones of Evora is attached to Igreja de São Francisco , a shiny white church in the center of the city. The entrance is clearly marked, to the right of the main doors of the church.
The chapel is closed on Sundays and January 1, the evening of Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. During the summer (June 1 to September 1), the chapel opens at 9 am and closes at 6:00 pm, while it closes at 5:00 pm the rest of the year. On Saturdays, the chapel closes at 1:00 p.m. Like many other attractions in Évora, the chapel also closes for lunch Monday through Friday, between 1 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., so plan your visit in consequence.
An adult ticket costs € 2. It is an additional € 1 to take photos.
The chapel is quite small, so don’t expect to spend a lot of time there. Unless you have a particular interest in old bones, 10-15 minutes will probably be sufficient. Depending on when you visit, you may end up spending more time in the ticket line than inside the bone chapel!
What else to see nearby
Once you’re done in the chapel, be sure to visit the church museum as well – access is included in your ticket price. What it lacks in human remains, it more than makes up for in religious paintings, sculptures, and other works of art from the convent’s collection.
Less than a ten-minute walk away, at the highest point in the area, is the Evora Cathedral. Tickets cost between € 2 and € 4.50, depending on which parts you want to visit, and the highlight (on a sunny day at least) is the panoramic views of the city from the roof of the cathedral.
Almost directly next door is the Roman Temple of Évora , the remains of a Roman temple dating back to the 1st century AD. Destroyed by invading armies in the 5th century, it served various purposes for millennia, including, for many centuries, a carnage, before restoration and preservation work finally began in the 1870s. The ruins are located in a raised platform in a public square, and access is free.
