Chapel of bones in Evora. This is Portugals most famous bone chapel and it is a place that lets the human bones speak for themselves – literary. But what are they saying? Join us as we enter this morbid place in Evora, Alentejo.

Bones and children playing

There seems to be a connection between children and the placement of bone chapels. When we visited the bone chapel in Faro, my first thought was that I could hear the children playing outside of the walls. At the chapel of bones  in Evora, you can also hear the children on the other side of the wall. However, there were no children inside the chapel. I’m not sure if children are supposed to see these kinds of places but I think that it might give them nightmares.

And let’s face it – you visit this place to see the chapel and not the church. However, you will get to see more for the entrance fee because the bone chapel is just part of the exhibition. For four euros you will get three different experiences. A museum, a native scenes collection and the bone chapel.

Other things to see while visiting the chapel of bones in Evora

I’m not sure what it is but boy was this collection cute. It is like a small world of miniatures. It might have been cribs in miniature and they were super detailed. And there is pretty much to see here. You wander the corridors of the building and if you are like us you can’t wait to get to the bone chapel. Sure all the other things are nice to but at the same time – it is the morbid bone chapel that took you here and that’s what you want to see!

Try to have patience and enjoy all of the exhibitions because there is a lot of detailed stuff that is super cool and worth seeing. My favorite thing was a statue of a monk. I could not get enough of his hairdo. The bone chapel is located inside the church of Sao Francisco.

The bones are waiting for you

There is an inscription above the door to the bone chapel. Translated into English it literary says “We bones that are here, we are waiting for your’s“. It is hard to imagine that this used to be a prayer and meditation place. I’m not sure if you could relax and meditate here. We were not comfortable even closing our eyes while here.  The chapel was built using bones of the graves of the town and all of the interiors is covered with human bones.

It is creepy and awesome at the same time! I love places like this. I can’t help but to look at the bones. Sometimes my eyes fixate on a special skull. Then my imagination runs wild. Who was this person? How did they die? If they knew that their skull would be on display like this – would they be fine with that?

Our visit to the Chapel of Bones of Evora

One visitor was strolling around the bone chapel, listening to heavy metal and banging his head. Could this classify as the same kind of weirdness as the guy that was taking notes in the torture museum in Prague? And then a group of Asian people came and they all kept saying the same word over and over again. It sounded like they said “Sanda”. I have been searching for the meaning of that word but without any luck so if you know what it means please let us know!

All in all, this is an awesome place. It is more preserved than some of the other bone chapels we have visited and they have a glass fence that keeps you from coming to close to the bones. I wish that they would have skipped that fence. That would make us come closer to the human bones – and no worries – we would not want to touch the bones. No harm done! And if you just look at this chapel as a piece of art – it is really amazing! Yes, those are human skulls that crisscross like festoon in the ceiling. But it looks awesome! We loved this place! Ok… I loved this place and Mini liked it!

Information about the chapel of bones in Evora

Address: Praça 1º de Maio 4.
Opening hours: Daily 09.00 – 17.00.
Entrance fee: 4 euro per person.
Website Visit Evora

Read more about morbid tourism here.