EVORA

city, capital, and concelho (township), vora district, south-central Portugal. It lies in a fertile valley surrounded by low hills, 70 miles (110 km) east of Lisbon. Under its original name of Ebora, the place was from 80 to 72 BC the headquarters of the Roman commander Quintus Sertorius, and it long remained an important Roman military centre. Later it was called Liberalitas Julia because of certain municipal privileges bestowed upon it by Julius Caesar. About 712 vora was conquered by the Moors, who named it Jabura; it was not retaken by the Christians until 1166. Its bishopric, founded in the 5th century, was raised to an archbishopric in the 16th, when vora was often the residence of the Portuguese court. From 1663 to 1665 it was in Spanish hands. In 1832 Dom Miguel, pretender to the Portuguese throne, retreating before Dom Pedro I, took refuge in vora; and there was signed the Convention of vora by which Miguel was banished. Fought over for centuries, vora has a coat of arms that features two severed human heads. The cathedral, originally a Romanesque building (11861204), was restored in Gothic style (c. 1400). So Francisco Church (150725) is a good example of the blended Moorish and Gothic architecture known as Manueline. The city's former university, founded in 1559 to succeed the College of the Holy Spirit (Jesuit; founded in 1551), was suppressed in 1759, but the building still houses schools. A government-operated inn, the Pousada dos Lios, stands in the grounds of the former convent of Lios (15th century). Just outside the inn is the small Roman Temple of Diana (a name for which no valid authority exists). The regional museum contains a Roman collection and an art gallery. After 1640 the city became a centre for music study and performance in connection with the cathedral and university. The University Institute of vora was founded in 1973. vora city is of little industrial importance, being primarily an agricultural (corn , apples, hay, and pigs) trade centre, but there is some iron founding, cork processing, and cloth manufacture. It is connected to Lisbon and Faro and to Spain by railroad and highway. The city has a domestic airport. vora district (area 2,854 square miles [7,393 square km]) is known for its mules and abounds in cork woods. A fertile agricultural region, it also has iron-ore, copper, and asbestos mines and marble quarries. Pop. (1981) city, 35,117; (1987 est.) concelho, 50,200; (1990 est.) district, 171,500.