Convento do Espinheiro is a fifteenth-century former convent just outside Evora, restored as a five-star Luxury Collection hotel and spa. Frescoed halls, cloisters, an original church, and eight hectares of gardens where kings and queens once retreated — it’s a venue where history breathes through every stone, minutes from the World Heritage city.
For weddings, it offers the rare combination of a working church for the ceremony, grand interior salons, and expansive gardens, with ninety rooms for the group and a spa for the days around the day. It’s the historic Alentejo wedding, with five-star comfort and centuries of story behind it.
For couples who want a heritage wedding with a real church next to Evora, this is the spot. If you ask us, few places in Portugal hold this much history so lightly.
The hotel offers ninety rooms and five suites on-site, so the group stays at the convent itself. Mary Me coordinates the allocation between the wedding party, family, and VIPs, with curated overflow options in Evora nearby, the multi-day programme, and transfers from Lisbon airport handled.
The story begins around the year 1400, when, as legend tells it, Our Lady appeared atop a hawthorn — espinheiro in Portuguese. An oratory was raised in 1412, and by 1458, under King Afonso V, the church and then the convent were founded, becoming a place of pilgrimage and a favourite retreat of Portuguese royalty for centuries.
Home to the Hieronymite friars and visited by kings such as Joao II and Manuel I, the original fifteenth-century building is classified as a National Monument. Restored and reopened as a five-star hotel, it now pairs that heritage with a contemporary wing, the Divinus restaurant set in an old wine cellar, and the Diana Spa.
If you ask us, what is true, time doesn’t erase. Here, it perpetuates it.
We’re just outside Evora, the city classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, with its cathedral, Roman temple, and Chapel of Bones a couple of kilometres away. Lisbon airport is about an hour away, and the hotel sits within eight hectares of quiet gardens on the edge of the Alentejo plain.
The advantage for a destination wedding is heritage with the city at the door: the convent grounds are private and serene, but Evora’s monuments, restaurants, and the wineries of the region are right there for the guests.
Anything the guests might want to do — Evora, wine tasting, the Alentejo plain — is at hand. Arriving is easy. Leaving — we can’t quite guarantee that part.
Convento do Espinheiro is a heritage wedding with rare range. The Catholic, civil, or symbolic ceremony can take place in the original church, in the cloisters, or out in the gardens; the cocktail spreads across the patios; dinner settles in the grand D. Vasco room, which seats up to around two hundred and fifty, or in the gardens, and the party runs on with the convent floodlit behind.
With its ninety rooms and five suites, the Divinus restaurant, the Diana Spa, and indoor and outdoor pools, the hotel lodges the group on-site and turns the wedding into an immersive two- or three-day stay. The frescoes, the stone, and the gardens make the setting.
It’s a venue that favours history, beauty, and five-star comfort over spectacle — ideal for couples who want a grand Alentejo wedding with a real church and centuries of story. And this is exactly where our experience comes in. The couple’s session winds through the cloisters, the frescoed halls, the eight hectares of gardens, and the convent floodlit at dusk. Pop the question. We handle the rest.
A historic hotel near Evora, with couples flying in from abroad, is exactly where our coordination makes the difference, especially in designing a multi-day wedding and the logistics for international guests. We handle the design of the day in coordination with the hotel team, the allocation of the rooms and suites for the group, and the transfers from Lisbon airport, about an hour away. And there’s the practical side: the paperwork for the civil or Catholic ceremony in Portuguese, the sound permits, and a programme of Evora, wine tasting, and the Alentejo for the guests. From the first call to the last dance.
A heritage wedding minutes from Evora — ceremony in the original church or the gardens, dinner in the grand D. Vasco room, and a party with the floodlit convent behind, in a five-star Luxury Collection hotel set in a fifteenth-century former convent.
Yes — there is an original church on-site, so Catholic ceremonies can take place at the venue, alongside civil and symbolic options in the cloisters or gardens. Mary Me coordinates all of it.
Yes — the hotel has ninety rooms and five suites, so the group stays on-site. Mary Me coordinates the allocation and the multi-day programme, with overflow in Evora nearby.
Evora is a couple of kilometres away; Lisbon airport is about an hour. Mary Me arranges the transfers for the guests.
The grand D. Vasco room seats up to around two hundred and fifty for an indoor reception, with the gardens offering further options. The exact capacity for your format is confirmed with the hotel.
From late spring to early autumn, to enjoy the gardens and cloisters outdoors. The Alentejo summer is hot, so we recommend a shaded plan and booking well in advance.
It’s a fifteenth-century former convent of the Hieronymite friars, a National Monument with royal history, restored as a five-star Luxury Collection hotel with an original church, eight hectares of gardens, the Divinus restaurant, and the Diana Spa — heritage with five-star comfort.
