The University of Évora (Universidade de Évora) is a public university in Évora, Portugal. It is the second oldest university in the country, established in 1559 by then cardinal Henry, and receiving University status in April of the same year from Pope Paul IV, as documented in his Cum a nobis papal bull. Running under the aegis of the Society of Jesus (also known as Jesuits) meant that the university was a target of the Marquis of Pombal's Jesuit oppression, being closed down permanently in 1779 and its masters either incarcerated or exiled.
It was reopenned nearly two hundred years later in 1973 as Instituto Universitário de Évora (University Institute of Évora) by decree of the Minister of Education, José Veiga Simão, in the site of the older university, as part of a set of education policies during the early 70s that were attempting to reshape Portuguese higher education. Six years later, in 1979, the name was changed to Universidade de Évora.
