Roman Temple of Évora (Templo Romano)

The Roman Temple of Évora (Templo Romano de Évora), also called the Temple of Diana, stands on the highest point of the old town of Évora in the Alentejo region of Portugal, beside the Cathedral and the Convento dos Lóios. It was built in the 1st century AD, probably in the early imperial period when the city, then Ebora Liberalitas Julia, was an important Roman regional centre. The temple was a peripteral hexastyle building on a granite podium and was most likely dedicated to the imperial cult, though the popular name Temple of Diana dates only from a 17th-century legend. Fourteen Corinthian columns survive, made of local granite with capitals and bases of white Estremoz marble, along with part of the podium and architrave pieces. The structure survived because it was incorporated into later buildings: in the Middle Ages it became part of a fortress and was later walled in and used as a slaughterhouse, which preserved the columns until the walls were removed in 1871. Restoration after that date, directed by local scholars, reassembled and consolidated the remains, and further conservation works have continued into recent decades. The temple is not a museum but an open-air archaeological monument, so no interior is open, and its setting among medieval and Renaissance buildings is part of its character. It forms part of the Historic Centre of Évora, which UNESCO inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1986. The adjoining Museu de Évora holds sculpture and Roman inscriptions from the region for visitors who want more context. The site is always viewable from the square and is lit at night, making it a free stop on a walk through the old town.