ÉVORA, Archdiocese of. - City of Portugal, capital of the province of Alemtejo, with 22,000 inhabitants. E. is the ancient Ebora Cerealis, reduced by Julius Caesar to a Roman municipium under the name of Liberalitas Iulia. A bishopric among the most ancient of the Iberian peninsula, according to legend its first pastor would have been the Roman St. Mancius, sent by the Apostles themselves into Spain; it certainly existed as a diocese from the Visigothic-Christian period (4th century), and its bishop Quinziano took part in the Council of Elvira.
The diocese was elevated to an ecclesiastical metropolis on 24 Sept. 1540, and its first archbishop was Card. Henry, who later became king of Portugal (Henry I), and to whom is also due the foundation of the University, subsequently abolished by the Marquis of Pombal, upon the expulsion of the Jesuits from the kingdom. The archdiocese, of which the dioceses of Beja and Faro are suffragan, counts over 200,000 faithful, distributed among 176 parishes.
Among its monuments, besides the remains of the ancient aqueduct, called "of Sertorius," and the temple of Diana, mention should be made of the Cathedral, a Romanesque construction of the 12th century, with the facade adorned with two pinnacled towers, and the church of St. Francis, of the 14th century.
Bibliography3 works
Mariano Baffi