The hotel is now closed for the month. To this day, there has been no announcement on their website. We managed to stay the first night of their closure, the only guests in the hotel. If you read up, you will see I was never informed of the hotel's closure, despite having a booking made in Feb 2014. I reached out to the hotel who didn't respond in a way that definitively said they would be closed on the date I had booked. However, they asked if I could choose a different day. We had a very slow pace of discussion. Eventually, I realized I could flip my trip and stay a night that was perhaps the last night they were open or the first night of the closure. I wasn't quite sure. Indeed they were to be closed but the GM agreed to our stay. I was told in advance that their food outlets would be closed, the bar would be open, and if we wanted breakfast, we would need to have it in our room. That was all agreeable with me as I really wanted to stay here.

We programmed our GPS to find the hotel. It was insistent that we drive up a rutted farm road, roughly a mile short of the property. We were confident we weren't meant to stay amongst cows, so continued down the road past a cemetery and farmland. At the end of the road was the white structure of the hotel. We pulled up into the forecourt and went into the hotel. Staff was standing awaiting us. "Hello, you must be Mrs. SanDiego1K. Welcome!" Staff throughout our short visit were universally warm and helpful. I was apologetic about staff being required to work for just us, but I was assured that was not the case. For example, people had to be present to answer phone calls.

The property is an old monastery. It had been in ruins until 1999. The front office manager is from Evora and rode his bicycle to the ruins as a child. He remembers the excitement in town when the decision was made to build a hotel. A new section has been built in the back that includes rooms, conference facility, inside pool, gym, and spa. We were in the beautiful historic section.

We were told there are 10 suites in the historic section and 4 suites in the new section. 4 of the historic suites have balconies. Ours did not. Rooms in the historic section were made from monks' cells. That would explain the curious proportions of our suite. We had King Manuel I suite, room 212. The bedroom was massive, the living room tiny, and the bathroom the same size as the living room. I would guess that 3 monk cells were used for the bedroom and 1 each for the other rooms. The bathroom had both a walk in shower and a tub, along with Bulgari toiletries. At the risk of being ungracious, I was surprised that the suite didn't have particular charm. Better decisions could have been made about furniture and better use could have been made of space. Be cautious of room service. There was a 7 euro charge to bring a 5 euro bottle of water to our room.

The chapel is exquisite. This hotel is ideal for a wedding, yet they only host about 30 a year. Everyone can stay at the hotel, the wedding can be in the chapel, and there are places for the meal afterwards. The dining room is in the old section and has great character. And there are a number of public rooms with comfortable seating, most with religious art.

I love the pousadas and paradores of Portugal and Spain, many of them built in wonderful historic spaces that would otherwise have no use. This hotel is comparable in its public spaces and has bedrooms and service far superior to any of the nationally operated hotels.