Royal Palace of Évora

The Royal Palace of Évora, also known as the Royal Palace of São Francisco and the Palace of King Manuel I, is a former royal residence of the Kings of Portugal, in Évora, the capital of Alentejo.

The palace has its origins in a convent built in the 13th century. During the 14th century, the convent came under royal use when the royal family was in the Alentejo, but only became a proper palace under the reign of King John I, who used it as a personal retreat from the court. It became a royal palace during King Afonso V's reign, though it was the successive reigns of King John II and Manuel I that turned the originally ordinary palace into a grandiose renaissance palace, truly fit for a king. Over the centuries, the palace fell prey to war, decay, and urban redevelopment, which destroyed nearly all of the palace, with only a few segments of the palace still existing.