EVORA
Nestling with dignified repose in the heart of Portugal's sun-baked Alentejo province, Évora is one of the country's oldest and most enchanting cities. Rising to prominence under the Romans, the town was also occupied for some 500 years by the Moors. Medieval Évora thrived as a center of learning and the arts, and was patronized by a succession of Portuguese kings. Its numerous churches and monasteries stand as testament to a devout and pious legacy.
The melding of such diverse cultures and religions coupled with an abundance of different architectural styles prompted UNESCO to declare Évora's old town a World Heritage Site. Conveniently, this precious hoard of monuments and museums is clustered together within the city walls, and can be easily explored on foot. Similarly, Évora's lively market town atmosphere is best appreciated by following the narrow cobblestone lanes that snake away from the brooding cathedral to pass gurgling fountains and flower-flecked squares. Along the way, colorful handicraft stores and family-run cafés busy themselves under granite-wrapped arcades. Restaurants, meanwhile, serve some of the tastiest gastronomy in the land.
VILLAGE OF GUADALUPE
Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe is a Portuguese town in the municipality of Évora. This parish was created in 1985, dismembering the neighboring parish of Nossa Senhora da Graça do Divor in the territory that had constituted the old parish of São Matias.
It was the seat of an extinct parish in 2013, as part of a national administrative reform, to form, together with Nossa Senhora da Tourega, a new parish called Union of the Parishes of Nossa Senhora da Tourega and Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe with headquarters in Nossa Lady of Tourega.
ALMENDRES MENHIR
The Menir dos Almendres is located in the parish of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the municipality of Évora, District of Évora, in Portugal. It consists of a large porphyry granite menhir, about 3.5 meters high from the ground surface, with an elliptical section of 1.20 x 0.80 meters.
It is located at the top of the slope, 1.3 km northeast of the Cromeleque dos Almendres, presenting itself isolated from it, although it is assumed that there is an intimate relationship between the two, since its alignment coincides with the sunrise on the Summer Solstice.
The menhir was erected by its owner, although it is assumed that its original location is close to its current one. Since it is located on private property, the menhir is surrounded by a circular fence of wooden and wire stakes.
ALMENDRES CROMLECH
The chromeleque was discovered in 1964, by the researcher Henrique Leonor Pina, when the Geological Map of Portugal was surveyed. The entire archaeological site covers an extensive chronological range, from the Middle Neolithic to the Iron Age, between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the third millennia before Christ, consisting of a cromlech of irregular circular plant, composed of about ninety and five granitic monoliths arranged in small clusters in an area of ??about 70 x 40 m, with a northwest-southeast orientation.
It has a decoration in its upper third composed of a staff and a strip of wavy lines. The site is the set of structured menhirs in the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the most relevant in European megalithism.
Since 1974, the cromlech and menhir are heritage protected by law, initially as a Property of Public Interest (IIP). In 2015, the Almendres Cromlech was reclassified as a National Monument, keeping the classification as IIP.
GREAT DOLMEN OF ZAMBUJEIRO
Anta Grande do Zambujeiro is a dolmen-type megalithic monument near Valverde, Évora, Alentejo, Portugal, one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula. It was built between 4,000 and 3,500 BC. It consists of a single chamber, used during the Neolithic period as a burial site and possible religious cults.
The polygonal chamber is made of seven huge stones 8 meters high. Originally, they were covered by a stone 7 meters wide. A corridor 12 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters high leads to the chamber. The entrance was marked by a huge, decorated menhir, currently tumbled. Many archaeological finds found during the excavations are to be found in the Évora Museum.
Anta Grande do Zambujeiro was declared a National Heritage Site in 1971 by Decree Law 516/71, of 22 November. This monument illustrates the technical capacity and complexity of the social organization of the Neolithic populations that built it.
In 2019, the megalithic monument is in a very worrying state and is at risk of collapse of its entire structure. The vertical stones that make up the monument, especially those in the corridor, are practically in view almost to the base, which makes it in a progressively dangerous situation of collapse.