This point sits on Rua 5 de Outubro, a short walk from the city's cathedral and old Roman heart.
Last reviewed 2 November 2026 · A four-minute read · 800 BC–2010
The short answer
Rua 5 de Outubro in Évora runs past the site where Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, was executed in 1483, close to the Cathedral of Évora. The street carried Roman, Arabic and medieval trade names before that, and still holds a 1733 chapel built in thanks for Évora being spared the 1755 earthquake.
Évora, Portugal — 2010 · Pedro Ribeiro Simões from Lisboa, Portugal · CC BY 2.0
1483
A duke was executed near Évora's cathedral
This point sits on Rua 5 de Outubro, a street lined with the walled heart of old Évora. About 350 feet away stands the Cathedral of Évora, a granite fortress of a church begun in 1184 on the city's highest ground.
Évora's history was not always calm. In 1483, Fernando II, Duke of Braganza was executed here, accused of plotting against King John II. Fernando II was one of Portugal's richest nobles, and his death broke the power of the Braganza family for a generation.
medieval period
Saddlers and goldsmiths once worked this street
Long before any of that, this street carried a different name and a different trade. In the 1400s, Jewish goldsmiths kept their workshops here, when the street was called Rua da Selaria. Its layout traces back to Roman times, when it ran crooked through the souk of Yâbûra, the Arabic name for the settlement here before the Christian reconquest. Through the medieval centuries, it was also called Rua dos Mercadores and Sapataria, names tied to the merchants and shoemakers who worked its length. The saddlers who gave the street its best-known old name, Rua da Selaria, worked leather and harness gear here from the 1300s onward.
16th century
A bishop's palace became the Counts of Vimioso's seat
Just beside this point, set back from Rua 5 de Outubro, stands the Palácio Vimioso. Its builders raised it in the 1500s as a home for D. Afonso de Portugal, Bishop of Évora, and the family line that followed him, the Counts of Vimioso. That family kept close ties to Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, the same house whose head had died by the executioner's hand a few decades earlier, a short walk from this spot.
Maria of Portugal died in Évora in 1357, during the reign of her husband, King Afonso IV of Portugal. Maria of Portugal
Martim Afonso de Melo, senhor de Arega e Barbacena, died in Évora in 1432. Martim Afonso de Melo
Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, died in Évora in 1471. Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy
The counts' own story carried violence too. The 2nd Count, Afonso I of Portugal, rode with King Sebastian into Morocco in 1578 and died at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, or was taken prisoner there, depending on the account. A later count, the 13th, became a well-known figure in 19th-century Lisbon: a bold horseman, a bullfighting enthusiast, and the lover of the fado singer Maria Severa, whose story was later told in song, theater, and film.
1733
A chapel gave thanks for an earthquake avoided
At number 28 on this street stands a small wall chapel, the Chapel to the Lord of Earthquakes, dated 1733. Its walls carry azulejo tiles, the blue-and-white painted tiles common across Portugal. People built it to give thanks after the earthquake of 1755 spared Évora, while the same quake leveled much of Lisbon to the north. The chapel has stood on this street since, a small shrine to a disaster the city avoided.
19th century
A palace was demolished but its windows saved
By the late 1800s, the Counts of Vimioso had sold their old bishop's palace to the Soares family, prominent landowners around Évora. The Soares family tore down most of the original episcopal building to put up their own grander house, the Palácio Soares, on the same ground.
Nuno Álvares Pereira de Melo, 1st Duke of Cadaval, died in Évora in 1725. Nuno Álvares Pereira de Melo, 1st Duke of Cadaval
Not everything of the old palace was lost. In 1866, workers salvaged five horseshoe-arched windows from the demolished building, carved in the Mudéjar style that blended Islamic and Christian forms. Those windows were rebuilt into the so-called Fake Ruins in Évora's Public Garden, a folly designed by the Italian architect Luigi Cinatti, where they still stand today, far from the ground they were cut for.
1808
Napoleon's forces stormed and sacked the city
In 1808, French and Spanish forces fighting for Napoleon stormed Évora in the Battle of Évora. Portuguese and Spanish defenders were overwhelmed, and the city was sacked, with civilians among the dead. The Roman Temple of Évora, standing about 475 feet from this point, had already watched over the city for more than 1,500 years by then.
1978 to 2010
The university moved its scholars into the palace
In 1978, the owners of the Palácio Soares signed it over to the University of Évora. The university moved a branch of its teaching into the palace the following year, in 1979. In 1981, the Portuguese Institute of Cultural Heritage took over the building's western section, working alongside the university under the same roof. By 2010, the university had shifted its classrooms elsewhere and installed its Department of History, an art history research center, and part of its general library inside the palace instead.
now
Archaeologists now work beside the old cathedral
Today, the western wing of the Palácio Vimioso, once its stalls and stables, holds the university's Department of Archaeology and an interactive archaeology center, standing directly beside the Cathedral of Évora. The cathedral's bells, the old chapel's tiles, and the palace's salvaged windows across town are all pieces of the same street's long memory.
Rua 5 de Outubro still runs past the palace walls toward the cathedral, carrying the same line the Roman souk once traced.
Sourced records, high and medium confidence. Era background is marked as such.
Ancient
1st-4th centuries AD; some burials from Iron Age (8th-1st century BC)
Multiple burial grounds lay near this address, used from the Iron Age through the medieval period. The largest, at Largo Alexandre Herculano just up the street, held the dead of Roman Ebora in graves that have been excavated and studied by Portuguese archaeologists.
The Romans established Ebora as a city in the 1st century BC, giving it the honorific title Liberalitas Julia. It served as an important administrative and commercial center in the province of Lusitania, with temples, baths, and a fortified wall that shaped the layout of streets here for centuries to come.
A Roman temple once rose near this spot, dedicated to the classical gods. It survives today as the best-preserved Roman temple on the Iberian Peninsula, its granite columns still standing after nearly two thousand years.
Roman period, 1st-4th centuries AD; reinforced in medieval period
A defensive wall surrounded Roman Ebora, built to protect the settlement from raids. The same wall was later reinforced and reused by Islamic rulers in the medieval period, making it one of the oldest continuously maintained fortifications on the peninsula.
Roman baths once served the citizens of Ebora, providing hot water, cold plunges, and the social life of the bathhouse. The remains have been excavated and documented as part of Portugal's archaeological record.
After the Romans, Islamic rulers held the city for centuries. The street where you stand was defined during this period as part of the souk—the marketplace—with a tortuous layout that reflected the dense commercial activity. The Arabic name Yâbûra remained in use long after the Christian reconquest.
In the 15th century, Jewish goldsmiths had their workshops on this street, then called Rua da Selaria. The name came from the saddlers who worked here before, their leather tents lining what had been a Roman street defined more than a thousand years earlier.
In 1483, Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, was executed in Évora. A member of one of Portugal's greatest noble houses, his death marked a turning point in royal power and the consolidation of King John II's authority over the aristocracy.
1515 onwards; largely demolished late 19th century
A 16th-century palace was built here as the residence of Bishop D. Afonso de Portugal and became the seat of the Counts of Vimioso, one of Portugal's most prominent families. The palace stood for four centuries before being largely demolished in the late 1800s to make way for a new mansion, the Palácio Soares.
The great earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755 left Évora largely untouched. A small chapel was built at this very address—number 28, Rua 5 de Outubro—and decorated with azulejo tiles, erected to give thanks to the Lord of Earthquakes (Senhor Deus dos Terramotos) for the city's deliverance.
On July 29, 1808, British and Portuguese forces fought French troops in and around Évora during the Peninsular War. The battle was part of the broader conflict that followed Napoleon's invasion of Spain and Portugal.
When the Palácio Vimioso was demolished, five ornate mudéjar-style horseshoe arch windows were rescued and transplanted to Évora's Public Garden, where they stand today as Fake Ruins (Ruínas Fingidas)—a 19th-century act of archaeological preservation.
In 1979, the University of Évora established a branch in the surviving sections of the old Palácio Soares. Over the decades, it expanded to house the Department of History, the Centre for Art History and Artistic Research, and most recently the Department of Archaeology with an interactive museum—a fitting end for a building that once sheltered bishops and now shelters scholars.
Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, was executed there in 1483, accused of plotting against King John II. His death broke the power of the Braganza family for a generation.
What was here before the Palácio Soares?
The ground held the Palácio Vimioso, built in the 1500s as the home of Bishop D. Afonso de Portugal and later the seat of the Counts of Vimioso. The Soares family demolished most of it in the late 19th century to build their own mansion in its place.
What was Rua 5 de Outubro called before?
The street carried several earlier names, including Rua da Selaria, Rua dos Mercadores and Sapataria, tied to the saddlers, merchants and shoemakers who worked there. Its crooked layout traces back to the souk of Yâbûra, the Arabic name for Évora before the Christian reconquest.
Why was a chapel built on this street in 1733?
The Chapel to the Lord of Earthquakes was built at number 28 to give thanks after the 1755 earthquake spared Évora while devastating Lisbon. It still stands with its azulejo tiles on the same street.
What happened to the Palácio Vimioso's windows?
When the palace was demolished in the 1800s, five horseshoe-arched Mudéjar windows were salvaged in 1866 and rebuilt into the Fake Ruins in Évora's Public Garden, a folly designed by Luigi Cinatti, where they still stand.
What is in the Palácio Vimioso today?
The western wing, once its stalls and stables, now holds the University of Évora's Department of Archaeology and an interactive archaeology center, standing beside the Cathedral of Évora.
