Qualla: University of Evora

University of Evora: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On February 8, 1759, cavalry troops surrounded the Jesuit college in Evora. The Marquis of Pombal -- the powerful minister who was reshaping Portugal in his own image -- had ordered the suppression of the Society of Jesus, and the university that the Jesuits had run for exactly two hundred years was finished. Its professors were arrested or exiled. Its doors closed. Nearly two centuries would pass before students returned to the same Renaissance cloister, the same azulejo-lined classrooms, the same baroque chapel where degrees are still conferred today.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

University of Evora: A Cardinal's Foundation

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Concierge.2C, CC BY-SA 3.0. The University of Evora was established in 1559 by Cardinal Infante Dom Henrique, the Archbishop of Evora who would later become Cardinal-King of Portugal. Pope Paul IV granted it university status that same year through the papal bull Cum a nobis. Henrique handed administrative ...

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Image: Concierge.2C | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Evora: Where Plato Teaches in Tile

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cardeal D. Henrique, Public domain. The classrooms of the Colegio do Espirito Santo are decorated with azulejos -- the hand-painted ceramic tiles that are one of Portugal's most distinctive art forms. The scenes are deliberately chosen to match the subjects taught in each room: one panel depicts Plato teaching his ...

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Image: Cardeal D. Henrique | Public domain

University of Evora: Pombal's Purge

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dsloyal, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Jesuit college operated for exactly two hundred years, from 1559 to 1759. Its fall was part of a larger convulsion. The Marquis of Pombal -- Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo -- was consolidating state power in Portugal after the devastating 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the Je...

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Image: Dsloyal | CC BY-SA 4.0

University of Evora: Prelates, Poets, and a Bishop of Japan

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JBacelar - Freitas, Public domain. During its Jesuit centuries, the university trained many of the prelates who administered Portugal's sprawling empire. Afonso Mendes, who served as Patriarch of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), studied here. So did Pedro Martins, who became the first bishop of Japan. The theologi...

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Image: JBacelar - Freitas | Public domain