Wet Day in Evora

If you are going to have a wet day in your travels, its best done in an interesting town. We had booked a tour with a local archaeologist to look at some cave drawings done by Cro-Magnon citizens (some 60,000 years ago)... and some 'Druid' type rock circles... all within a few kilometres of town. However, the rain has not let up... the roads to the sites are not sealed and the soil is sticky... so the archaeologist's 4-wheel drive Jeep can't get through. We have not struck 'gold' weatherwise, but our location is perfect! Evora is just south of the marble region... still close to the Spanish border.

This town has developed into a centre of historical and cultural interest largely through the work of one man... a local Friar (subsequently made good and became the local Bishop). In 1834 he was promoted to head librarian (I'm sure his mother was so proud). He mustn't have had many books or borrowers because he spent his time collection all the Roman artefacts he could lay his hands on. His weird hobby soon became notorious and landholders would bring him all the strange stuff their ploughs had unearthed. Soon he had quite a collection... on display at the library. The church hierarchy got to hear of his success and gave him a budget to travel to nearby towns and buy-up any important collectables. He must have been an incorrigible sort of fellow... because he started buying art. The quality of his purchases lead to schools of art being started in Evora. The museum somehow survived wars, earthquakes, expulsion of certain religious orders... every conceivable obstacle and threat. It lost some of its most valuable pieces... but enough remains to be very valuable. We noticed how well preserved many of the Roman items remain. The edging on marble carving is razor sharp and the marble is unstained... as if it just left the factory.

In between showers, we skipped from church to church... from palace to palace. The day passed so quickly, we still had our to-do list incomplete before we ran out of time and energy.

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