--- title: Évora, Europe's 2027 Capital of Culture, Builds Its Year Around the Art of Taking Your Time description: Évora is European Capital of Culture 2027 from 6th February. What vagar means, what to see, how to get there from Lisbon, and Liepāja's year. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-07T20:08:15.358Z updated: 2026-11-07T20:08:15.370Z canonical: https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/evora-european-capital-of-culture-2027 image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-12847832.webp categories: Mindful Travel, Destinations content_type: Feature region: Portugal publication: Rich Travel Magazine schema_type: Article --- In the Alentejo, the wide plain of southern Portugal, people have a word for doing things at their own pace: vagar. It has no neat English translation, and its closest meanings are leisure, unhurried time and the freedom to wander. Évora, the region's walled capital, has made it the theme of its year as European Capital of Culture in 2027. The year opens on Saturday 6th February 2027, and Évora's city council has said the full programme will be presented on 18th November. Évora shares the title with Liepāja, a port city on Latvia's Baltic coast, whose year begins two weeks earlier. ## A Whole Year Built on Vagar The European Commission describes Évora's theme as a term for the Alentejo way of living, used to look for creative and sustainable answers to new challenges. On 6th February this year, exactly a year before the opening, the organisers launched a public petition asking Portugal's parliament to create a National Day of Vagar, to be held every 6th February. The programme reaches beyond the city to the 14 municipalities of central Alentejo. At a preview for visiting cultural organisers, the Centro Dramático de Évora performed the Bonecos de Santo Aleixo, the region's traditional puppet theatre, which the Évora 2027 team plans to weave into the year alongside new work. Euronews reported that the city expects more than a million visitors. ## An Opening Among the City Walls The opening on 6th February is planned as a series of performances on open-air stages, with Évora's ancient walls, streets and surrounding landscape as the backdrop. Giant puppets and moving sculptures will make their way through the crowds, and both international artists and local communities are due to take part. ## What to See Between Events Évora's historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, and its main sights sit within a short walk of one another. The Roman Temple stands at the highest point of the old town. It is often called the Temple of Diana, but it was built in the first century AD in honour of the Emperor Augustus, and its granite columns still rise above the square. A few streets away, the Gothic cathedral lets visitors climb onto its roof for a view across the plain. Inside the Church of St Francis, the walls of the Chapel of Bones are lined with the bones of around 5,000 people. The oldest monument lies outside the walls. The Almendres Cromlech, about 12 kilometres west of Évora, is a field of standing stones that people began to raise at the end of the sixth millennium BC and kept rearranging for thousands of years. A geologist mapping the area found it only in 1964. If you like places that ask you to slow down, read our guide to [ten destinations for the soul across Europe](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/destinations-for-the-soul-europe). ## How to Get There From London Fly from London to Lisbon, then take the train to Évora, which takes about an hour and a half. The city lies around 135 kilometres from the capital, so you can also hire a car at Lisbon airport and drive. Book rooms early if you plan to be there for the opening weekend. ## Liepāja Opens Two Weeks Earlier Liepāja's programme carries the title (un)rest and brings together more than 500 events in the city and the neighbouring South Kurzeme and Kuldīga regions. Its opening weekend runs from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th January 2027, and entry is free. On the main opening day, 23rd January, the morning begins with an amber hunt on Liepāja's beach and the day ends with a concert ceremony at the Great Amber concert hall. Later in the year, Liepāja hosts Europa Cantat, one of Europe's largest amateur choir festivals, from 9th to 15th August, with more than 3,000 singers and conductors expected. The programme also includes the opera-performance Sun & Sea, a solo exhibition by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota and a concert by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the conductor Andris Nelsons. The two cities signed a memorandum to work together on their programmes, and their teams have visited each other through 2026. Between them, they offer a year that starts by a Baltic beach in January and continues on an Alentejo plain in February. For more ideas on where to go next year, see our [eight European destinations for 2027](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/best-european-destinations-2027-from-london).