Due to its well-preserved old town centre, still partially enclosed by medieval walls, and many monuments dating from various historical periods, including a Roman Temple, Évora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[citation needed] Évora is ranked number two in the Portuguese most livable cities survey of living conditions published yearly by Expresso.

During his travels through Gaul and Lusitania, Pliny the Elder also visited this town and mentioned it in his book Naturalis Historia as Ebora Cerealis, because of its many surrounding wheat fields.

During the Muslim rule (715–1165), the town, part of the Taifa of Badajoz, slowly began to prosper again and developed into an agricultural center with a fortress and a mosque.

During that time, several notables hailed from Évora, including Abd al-Majid ibn Abdun Al-Yaburi عبد المجيد بن عبدون اليابري, a poet whose diwan still survives to this day.

[citation needed] Particularly thriving during the Avis Dynasty (1385–1580), especially under the reign of Manuel I and John III, Évora became a major centre for the humanities (André de Resende - buried in the cathedral) and artists, such as the sculptor Nicolau Chanterene; the painters Cristóvão de Figueiredo and Gregório Lopes; the composers Manuel Cardoso and Duarte Lobo; the chronicler Duarte Galvão; and the father of Portuguese drama, Gil Vicente.

Nicolas Cleynaerts, a Flemish tutor at the Portuguese court, exclaimed in 1535 that "In Évora, it was as if I had been carried off to a city in hell: everywhere I only meet blacks."

The university was founded by the Jesuits in 1559, and it was here that great European Masters such as the Flemish humanists Clenardus (1493–1542), Johannes Vasaeus (Jan Was) (1511–1561) and the theologian Luis de Molina passed on their knowledge.

An outnumbered Portuguese-Spanish force of 2,500, assisted by poorly armed peasant militiamen, tried to stop a French-Spanish division commanded by Louis Henri Loison but it was routed.

Led by the hated Loison, known as Maneta or One-Hand, the French went on to storm the town which was defended by soldiers, militiamen, and armed townsmen.

The variety of architectural styles (Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, Baroque), the palaces and the picturesque labyrinth of squares and narrow streets of the city centre are all part of the rich heritage of this museum-city.

The seat of the municipality is the city of Évora, composed by the civil parishes of Évora (São Mamede, Sé, São Pedro e Santo Antão) in the historical centre and the urban parishes of Bacelo e Senhora da Saúde and Malagueira e Horta das Figueiras outside the ancient city walls where most of the population in fact reside.

Évora has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) with hot, dry summers and mild, moist winters.

[15] However, the average summer high is usually around 30 °C (86 °F), which is significantly less severe heat than the one found at more interior, lower altitude areas of the Iberian Peninsula.

[23] Due to its extensive historical and cultural importance, Évora, as well as the surrounding area, saw in the 2010s a great increase in its international tourism sector, which fomented the creation of many hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and various other styles of accommodation.

The city of Évora is marked by the historic square in the Praça do Geraldo, where King Duarte constructed the Estaus Palace.

At the northern end of the square is the Church of Saint Andrew (Portuguese: Igreja de Santo Antão) built by Manuel Pires, in the 16th century.