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Hotel de Cartuxa, Evora ***
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A Brand New Hotel with Old World Style
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Peter and Linda D'Aprix 1999
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Hotel De Cartuxa is a brand new hotel for this lovely old and largely unspoiled inland town of Évora. The town has a Roman via duct in excellent condition, winding streets, cafés and shops, restaurants and old world character. This hotel is built on a couple of acres of open land, probably the last in the town that abuts the XIVth century town fortifications which serve as its garden wall.
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Entrance hall filled with soft light.
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An old world sittingroom/bar in a new hotel.
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The reception with traditional elements, columns,
arches, terra cotta tiled floors, warm stucco walls.
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Cartuxa pool and gardens.
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Évora is definitely one of the "newly discovered" hot spots in Europe. With the rolling countryside, pastoral in the extreme, dotted with cork oaks, white washed houses with mustard yellow or sea blue wide stripes around the doors, windows and the base of the walls. Hill top villages dot the horizon. Flocks of sheep, goats and cattle feed off the grasses. Just a little way from the border with Spain, and only a little over an hour from Lisbon, Évora is a perfect location to explore the mid region of the body of Portugal.
Hotel De Cartuxa to be found between the Alconchel and the Raimundo city portals that admit pedestrians, cars, carts and bicycles into the old town. This hotel is badly needed in Évora since there is little else to choose from within the town walls. Just a few minutes walk from the center square and all the restaurants, the hotel offers its own restaurant which offers fresh food of modest pretensions and aspirations. However, their morning buffet breakfast is superb.
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Village scene in Évora.
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The rooms are fresh and obligingly simple reflecting the style of the region. The walls are white, the floors terra cotta. The furniture is pine and the bathrooms tiled in a combination of Portuguese tiles and marble. They are spacious, modern and a pleasure to spend time in. There are plenty to choose from with 91 available.
The garage parking is secure and spacious, a welcome facility in a town of small winding streets where side swiping is virtually an unavoidable occurrence in a country with some of the most suicidal drivers in the world.
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