The Páteo de São Miguel - St Michael’s Yard - is located at one of the most distinguished and strategic points in the city of Évora and, for this reason, has been occupied by a series of invaders over the ages
The Páteo de São Miguel - St Michael’s Yard - is located at one of the most distinguished and strategic points in the city of Évora and, for this reason, has been occupied by a series of invaders over the ages.
It was first occupied for essentially defensive reasons, situated as it is at the highest point in the city, which not only made it difficult for enemy forces to attack, but also enabled a vast area of the surrounding plain to be watched over and contact to be maintained by signal with neighbouring fortifications. The area occupied by the Páteo de São Miguel was the hub of the defensive fortifications of the city, the reason why it was the Moorish Alcácer and an integral part of the Old Castle of Évora.
After the conquest of the city from the Moors in 1165, the fortification was given to the Military Order of St. Benedict of Calatrava by King Afonso Henriques. The headquarters of the order were later transferred to Avis, and it became the Order of Avis. During the period when the order was based in Évora, the knights, also known as the Friars of Évora, resided in the houses of the old castle and others in the vicinity, giving rise to the toponyms "Freiria de Cima" and "Freiria de Baixo" associated with the upper and lower friaries, and are preserved today in the names of two alleys.
From 1220, the Paço de São Miguel - St Michael’s Palace - was reinstated by the Crown as royal palace, and served as an inn for the monarch until the time of King Duarte and as headquarters of Commander Dom Nuno Álvares, in charge of frontier towns in the Alentejo during the War of Independence (1383-85).
A testimony of the military and political importance of this space in the Middle Ages is provided by Fernão Lopes, a leading 15th-century Portuguese chronicler. During the crisis of 1383-1385, the supporters in Évora of Dona Leonor Teles and Dom João II of Castile barricaded themselves inside the castle. In order to take it, the supporters of Dom João, Master of Avis, the future King João I, besieged the walled city. The besieged troops rained down arrows on them from the Roman Temple and the cathedral, however, to little effect. The city gates were only breached when those faithful to the cause of the Master of Avis took prisoner the relatives of those besieged in the city and threatened to execute them.
With the growth of the city of Évora, the construction of the new city walls during the reign of King Fernando I, which surround the Historic Centre, and developments in artillery, the old castle lost its prime defensive role and took on importance as a centre of military, political and administrative power and the place of residence for those who wielded it.
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