Elvas Castle, Church and Aqueduct

During our week in Evora, we thought that we would like to take a road trip on the toll free highway, from Evora to Elvas, which is near the Spanish border. So on a windy and cold Wednesday morning, we bundled up and started our trip east.

Unfortunately, we witnessed a car accident. A man travelling in the opposite direction to us, fell asleep while he was driving, crossed the highway and hit a ditch which caused his car to roll over three times and fly into the air before landing on its roof. Chris ran out, untangled him from his seatbelt, dragged him out from the car and lay him down in a safe spot. Donna and I stayed with the man, putting pressure on his head wound, talking to him in the best way that we could (we are in Portugal!) and picking up all of his belongings that had scattered around the car. A Portuguese passerby called emergency services and finally, after a significant period of time, help started arriving. Actually, cattle farmers arrived first, unravelled the barbed fence wire that was wound around the car and fixed the fence around their property. Chris wrote a statement in English and we waited until the man was taken away by ambulance. We felt that he was going to be all right, probably sore but not seriously hurt.

What a way to start our road trip. But on we continued.

Elvas is the biggest fortified city in Europe and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2012.

In the 13th century, Elvas became part of the Portuguese kingdom and became a “city-fortress”, starting in 1640 during the Portuguese Restoration War. This status was due to the fact that going through this area was the easiest and closest way to get to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, and because of that, there was a need to protect this region. Elvas had a key role and became one of the most important cities in Portugal.

Old cities have extremely narrow roads and we cringe when our rented car has to go down one of these streets. Elvas was full of winding narrow roads on the way to the castle. Elvas has a long history with Celts, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and finally Portuguese living here. The castle was built with a mixture of architecture from all of these groups of people. When we went up to the top of the castle, the winds were blowing strongly, but we once again had a fantastic view over the whole area , including the rolling hills of Spain, and understood why it had been a major military site.

We had parked our car near a wonderful (church) Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Assunção, once the Cathedral of Elvas, that was built in the 16th century. The church was full of the traditional blue and yellow tiles and had a magnificent 18th Century organ. A little toothless lady showed us around and explained things to us using a mixture of every language that she knew - Portuguese, Spanish, French, and a little English, in between some humming. For some reason, we understood most of what she was telling us.

We thought that the aqueduct in Evora was spectacular but we were awed by the Aqueduto da Amoreira (Aqueduct of Amoreira) in Elvas. Especially when we saw a man walking on the top of it on an extremely windy day! Can you see him in the photo?

This amazing 6 km (3.7 m) long aqueduct, classified as World Heritage Site in 1910, took more than 120 years to build and was finished in 1622. It has huge cylindrical buttresses and a series of arches that reach 40m (130’) metre in height. We stood directly under it and looked up. Wow! 40 m. high! And with a crazy man taking photos? Yikes.

Note: I have included an aerial photo that I found of Elvas which shows how big this city-fortress was.Read more