The creation of the new Episcopate of Elvas in the XVI century, demanded the construction of an Episcopal Palace that would be used as residence for all the bishops that would govern the diocese in the future. Its construction, enlargement, and other enrichments undertaken by some of those ecclesiastics that, according to the stylistic preference of each time, have devised and materialized them, conferring to the houses a compatible atmosphere with the status associated to the position. The extinction of the diocese in 1881 and its fulfillment in the following year, would dictate new functionalities to this building, standing in the applicability of the Law for Separation the moment in which a meaningful part of its artistic component – painting, furniture, jewelry, faience, paraments, tileworks, bookshops – spread by countless cultural institutions.