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Há Arte no Giraldo is located just down from the Praça do Giraldo, on nº 49 of Rua do Raimundo, at the intersection with the Rua do Lagar dos Dízimos (please check the Map).
Rua do Raimundo connects the Praça do Giraldo with the Portas do Raimundo (Raimundo Gates), where one of the connections between Highway A6 and Évora ends. According to modern scholars (Afonso de Carvalho and Maria Ângela Beirante), Rua do Raimundo is one of the few streets whose name has remained unchanged since the XIV century, when it is first mentioned in texts, allegedly deriving its name from a local nobleman who lived in this street (Father Francisco da Fonseca). This was one of the main streets of mediaeval Évora, only superseded in extension by Rua de Aviz. Its paving dates back probably to the XV century, when the king advised the Mayor to have it paved for being so important. During the XVI century, several palaces were built on this street, in association with the construction of the Royal Palace in the S. Francisco wall. Between 1508 and 1640, the Casa do Peso (Weighting House), where the vast majority of the goods sold in the City were taxed, was located on this street. The Freire de Andrade palace on Rua do Raimundo gave place in 1698 to the Convento das Mercês, founded by the Agostinhos Descalços (Barefoot Augustinian Order), whose protecting image was, according to tradition, offered by Queen D. Luísa de Gusmão. The architect and military engineer Miguel de Arruda, arquitect of the nearby Igreja da Graça, and appointed by D. João III in 1549, Master of works of walls and Fortifications of the Kingdom, Oversees and India, purchased a house here in 1542, as did relatives of the poet Luís Vaz de Camões, among others. The Rua do Lagar dos Dízimos connects the upper section of R. do Raimundo to the grounds of the S. Francsico Church, and owes its name to an olive crushing facility that existed here, where the farmers would pay the “dízima” tax, that is, one tenth of their product. The street was developed by mid-XV Century, when the Évora Municipality, with the financial support of Rua do Raimundo inhabitants, purchased a house owned by coppersmith João Mateus, to have arches opened at the ground level, allowing for the passage of the inhabitants to the S. Francisco grounds.
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