The University of Évora was the second university to be founded in Portugal. After the founding of the University of Coimbra in 1537, the need for another university to serve the south of the country was felt. Évora, ecclesiastical metropolis and temporary residence of the Court, immediately emerged as the most suitable city. Although the original idea of creating the second university of the Kingdom belonged to D. João III, it was up to Cardinal D. Henrique to put it into practice. Interested in teaching issues, he started by founding the Colégio do Espírito Santo, entrusting him to the then recently founded Companhia de Jesus.
Work on the building was still underway and the Cardinal was already asking Rome to transform the College into a full University. With the consent of Pope Paul IV, expressed in the bull Cum nobis of April 1559, the new University was created, with the right to teach all subjects, except Medicine, Civil Law and the contentious part of Canon Law. The solemn inauguration took place on November 1 of that same year. Even today, the University’s anniversary is celebrated with the ceremony for the solemn opening of the academic year.
The main subjects taught were Philosophy, Moral, Scripture, Speculative Theology, Rhetoric, Grammar and Humanities, which fully inserts this University in the traditional counter-reformist framework of European Catholic institutions of higher education, much of which, in fact, controlled by the Jesuits .
In the reign of D. Pedro II, the teaching of Mathematics would be introduced, covering subjects as varied as Geography, Physics, or Military Architecture. The prestige of the University of Évora during the two centuries of its first phase of existence was confused with the prestige and scientific value of its professors. Relevant names of Portuguese and Spanish culture were linked to it, of which it is important to highlight, in the first line, Luis de Molina, theologian and moralist of creativity and European reputation. In Évora, another luminary of the Iberian culture of that time, the Jesuit Francisco Suárez, who was later a professor at the University of Coimbra, received his PhD. Here he taught Pedro da Fonseca for some time, considered the most important Portuguese philosopher from the 16th century, famous for his effort to renew neo-scholasticism in Aristotelian thought.
Despite attempts to modernize and open up to the new scientific spirit that characterize the 18th century University, it must be recognized, however, that, like the older sister of Coimbra, her effort did not translate into an effective opening of spirits to the needs of the times new.
Despite the high individual value of many teachers, the education system as a whole has proved to be out of place and outdated. Évora thus participated in the global tendency to turn its back on transpirenaic Europe, which characterized most Iberian elites and cultural institutions in the Old Regime.
When the political and cultural conjuncture of the mid-18th century began to prove hostile to the Jesuits, it is not surprising that the University of Évora has easily become a target of Pombal’s reformist and centralist policy. On February 8, 1759 – two hundred years after its foundation – the University was surrounded by cavalry troops, as a result of the decree to expel and ban the Jesuits. After a long time of seclusion under arms, the masters were eventually taken to Lisbon, where many were imprisoned in the sadly celebrated Fort of Junqueira. Others were summarily deported to the Pontifical States.
From the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Lycée of Évora was installed in the noble henriquine building, to which Queen Dona Maria II granted the prerogative of the use of “cape and cassock”, in keeping with the university tradition of the city and the building.
In 1973, by decree of the then Minister of Education, José Veiga Simão, the University Institute of Évora was created, which would be extinct in 1979, to give way to the new University of Évora.