Évora's Roman temple stands on the highest part of the historic city, where the forum of ancient Liberalitas Iulia organized religious and civic life. The settlement had earlier regional roots, but Roman administration reshaped it through streets, public buildings, and connections with the province of Lusitania. The temple was constructed during the first century CE and subsequently altered. Although commonly called the Temple of Diana, that dedication is unsupported by ancient evidence. Scholars generally associate the building with the imperial cult, possibly honoring Augustus and his successors.

A high podium carried a rectangular sanctuary surrounded by a colonnade. Granite shafts and marble bases and capitals combined durable regional materials with refined Corinthian ornament. Steps provided formal access from the forum, while the elevated structure made worship visible within the city's public center. The surviving columns and entablature preserve only part of the original building, whose roof, sanctuary walls, sculpture, and much of its approach have disappeared. Archaeological investigation of the surrounding area has also identified features that help reconstruct the forum's monumental setting.

Imperial cult buildings linked religious observance with political allegiance and civic status. Local elites sponsored ceremonies, held priesthoods, and used public architecture to advertise membership in the Roman order. The temple therefore belonged to the same social system as the forum's administrative, commercial, and gathering spaces. As imperial government and religious practices changed in late antiquity, the sanctuary lost its original function. Damage and reuse followed, though the precise sequence cannot be reduced confidently to one invasion or a single act of deliberate destruction.

During the Middle Ages the remains were incorporated into fortifications and other buildings. Later use as a meat market helped preserve columns within surrounding walls even as the structure's ancient appearance became obscured. Early modern antiquarians supplied interpretations, including the enduring association with Diana. Nineteenth-century restoration removed much of the later fabric to expose the Roman monument, creating the freestanding ruin familiar today. Those interventions protected important remains but also removed evidence of the practical uses that had allowed them to survive for so long.

The temple forms a central landmark within Évora's UNESCO-listed historic center, recognized in 1986. Its setting among the cathedral, former convents, palaces, and museums makes the city's layered history unusually clear. Conservation addresses weathering, structural stability, drainage, and the pressure of visitors around exposed stone. The monument is significant both as an outstanding Roman survival in Portugal and as a lesson in historical interpretation: an unsupported dedication became a familiar name, while medieval reuse and modern restoration determined which parts of the ancient building remain visible.