From Lisbon, Visiting the Storied City of Évora

MANY day trips and overnight stays — especially to outlying towns and cities in southern Europe where weekend hours for shops and tourist sites can seem almost whimsical — often do little more than whet one’s appetite to return for a proper visit. But, at less than two hours by car from Lisbon , an overnight visit to the storied Portuguese city of Évora and the surrounding area packs a lot into relatively little time.

To start, there is the stunning combination of Roman, Gothic and Baroque architecture for which Évora has been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site. But there are many other aspects to the city, which is a bit like its churches — seemingly staid and whitewashed on the outside until you step inside to discover sumptuous interiors adorned with gleaming gold leaf and thousands of dazzling tiles.

Évora makes a great one-night stand because its charms come in varied and delectable bites, much like the petiscos or appetizers that start off most meals here. It also helps that these charms exist in such surprising abundance and proximity — virtually everything in the city is less than five minutes away from everything else — with most major monuments a good bit closer together.

At this walled city’s highest point, a brooding medieval cathedral sits next to the Museum of Évora, which in turn rubs shoulders with the Pousada dos Loios, the city’s state-run hotel set inside a former convent that dates from the 15th century. Facing the Pousada is the tile-encrusted church of St. John the Evangelist, which shares a courtyard with the palace of the noble Cadaval family, who have opened it as a quirky house museum where you’ll find grand family portraits and royal decrees from the family’s glory years in the 17th century as well as some Louis Vuitton luggage from the 20th century’s golden age of travel. In front of the palace are the remains of a Roman temple, and in front of that is a pretty little park with ice-cream vendors and views of Évora’s red tile rooftops and the 16th-century aqueduct stretching off into the distance.

It adds up to about 2,000 years of history in 20 paces, and you can easily see it all in a couple of hours.

The capital of Portugal ’s Upper Alentejo region today, Évora has an impressive résumé with stints as an important Roman mercantile center and a fortified Moorish bastion. It became the center of the Portuguese court under the Avis dynasty (1385-1580), when many of its grandest buildings were constructed.

Where Does Cork Come From - News


From Lisbon, Visiting the Storied City of Évora
From Lisbon, Visiting the Storied City of Évora

Most of the country's excellent ham (“presunto” in Portuguese) and other pork products come from here. As does most of the world's cork; the region's famous black-footed pigs fatten themselves up on acorns that drop from the cork and holm oaks looming



Win a holiday to Ireland
Win a holiday to Ireland

Will you explore the ancient castles of County Clare or opt for a lively night out at a legendary music pub in Cork? Why not do both? From its picture-perfect rural villages and historic cities to 900 miles of stunning coastline between Clare and Cork,



The high-rise and the downturn
The high-rise and the downturn

Joe Gavin, former Cork city manager, called it “attractive, sleek and slender . . . a landmark building as you come in from the airport”. The one-bed apartments went on sale for €375000; penthouses were going for between €1.4 million and €2 million.



Galway freeze after legends' harsh words

If they do, there's still progress to be made. OFFALY hurlers haven't enjoyed much luck this year and it continued when they drew Cork away in the next qualifying round. They head for Pairc Ui Chaoimh today on what is a very difficult mission against a



Institute puts Ireland in spotlight

“Some companies do come out of institutes, but actually the majority of high technology companies are not formed as spin-outs from universities, they're formed as spin-outs from other companies,” he says. “Even in the west coast of the US, the majority




Where Does Cork Come From? | Goosecross Cellars

Cork is the bark of cork-oak tree and the largest supplier of wine cork is Portugal. Those more fortunate than me tell me of the lovely cork forests there. Environmentalists are doing what they can to urge us to stick with natural cork as the seal of choice because it’s a renewable resource and the forests are habitat to endangered species.

The tree has to be about 40 years old before the cork is suitable for wine. If it’s harvested properly, the tree doesn’t die. The bark grows back and the tree can be harvested every nine years. The bark is seasoned and treated for impurities before they finally punch those cute little corks out of it, clean them up and stamp our name on them. Then, they report for duty!


Where Does Cork Come From - Bookshelf

Boys' Life

Boys' Life

Q. — Where does cork come from? — QA, III. A.-— Nearly all flowering plants have a cork tissue as a part of the bark. In the cork oak that grows in the ...

Forests

Forests

What is a rain forest? Why do people cut down trees? Where does cork come from? Read this book to find out all about forests!

The dangerous book for boys

The dangerous book for boys

Where does cork come from? When a plant is damaged and its internal tissues are exposed, it is open to fungal and bacterial attack. ...

Audubon magazine

Audubon magazine

Where does cork come from? Might there be a connection between English "cork" and Latin quercus? What about alba? Did you ever hear of an albino, ...

Installing Floors

Installing Floors

Where Does Cork Come ... (Photo courtesy DuroDesign) DuroDesign Flooring offers cork tiles in more than 50 different colors. Four of those colors were used ...

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HowStuffWorks "Where does cork come from?"
Where does cork come from and why is it used to make bottle stoppers? Find out all about cork

Where Does Cork Come From
Where does cork come from? It is actually the bark of a Mediterranean type of oak tree. It contains a waxy ingredient called suberin, which makes ...

Part 1: The Real Cork – Where does cork come from? | Catavino
Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we present our first article in a series of three titled, "The Real Cork". Where does cork come from? ...

Answers.com - Where does cork come from
Trees and Shrubs question: Where does cork come from? Corks are produced from the bark of an oak tree grown in the western Mediterranean. ...

The World's Tree Species: Where does cork come from?
It comes from the bark of the "Cork Oak tree" (tree species name - Quercus suber) ... I was recently talking with someone - we did not know where cork came from. ...