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PO20 7HY
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Algarve Places
Introduction
Here is an introduction to the major towns and cities of the Algarve, from East to West.
- São Brás de Alportel
- Faro
- Loulé
- Vilamoura
- Albufeira
- Armação de Pêra
- Carvoeiro
- Silves
- Portimão
- Alvor
- Lagos
São Brás de Alportel
Of the typically Algarvean villages in the broad radius around Loulé, the largest and one of the most beautifully situated on the almond-covered, south-facing slopes is São Brás de Alportel. The town is overlooked by one of the Algarve's two pousadas (the other being at Sagres). Below São Brás, Estói is famous for its Milreu Roman ruins and its curious 18th-century palácio. The centrepiece of the nearby village of Santa Bárbara de Nexe is its 15th-century Gothic church.
To the northwest, Paderne and Salir are ancient settlements with vestiges of their Moorish past. Each has castle ruins. Querença and the neighbouring Cerro dos Negros (402metres) have fine views. Barranco do Velho is the gateway to the remote, wholly undeveloped northeast section of the Algarve. Once you are up on the plateau in the vicinity of Cachopo and Martilongo, a wonderful wilderness of rounded hills rolls on and on eastwards to the quiet banks of the Guadiana River. Alcoutim, with its medieval fortress ruins, and other forgotten backwater villages are waiting to be rediscovered. Come here for a taste of the pre-tourist Algarve life, and incidentally some of the best country food and of course medronho.
Faro
Faro is not a resort town. It is an earnest Portuguese provincial capital. The airport, about 7km from the centre, is the closest most visitors get to it. This is a pity because it has a number of attractions.
Best of all is the old walled town with its quiet, cobbled streets and its 16th, 17th and 18th century buildings. To get there, follow the centro signs to the Praça D. Francisco Gomes next to the harbour. Here you will find the Manuel Bivar gardens, at the enclosed end of which, next to the Turismo, stands the imposing Vila do Arco. Go through the archway and you are immediately in the old quarter.
The small Cathedral in the centre of the Largo de Sé dates from the mid-13th century and was probably built on the site of a Moorish mosque. The fine old buildings on the perimeter of the square include an 18th century episcopal palace and the current town hall. The statue in the square is of Bishop Francisco Gomes, who co-ordinated the rebuilding of Faro after it was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1755.
A short walk away, but still within the walled town, is a smaller square with a grander statue. It is that of Dom Alfonso III, who conquered the last strongholds of the Moors in Portugal in the 13th century. He is standing in front of the former Convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, now Faro's Archaeological and Lapidary Museum full of fascinating artifacts from prehistoric to modern times.
Faro has two other museums. The Ethnological Museum gives an insight into the traditional lifestyles of the region. The Maritime Museum has lots of models, including Vasco da Gama's ship São Gabriel, and an elaborate tuna-catching trap.
The most lavishly adorned of Faro churches is that of Nossa Senhora do Carmo. It is also the spookiest. It has a bone chapel with the skeletal remains of 1,245 former monks. An inscription over the doorway translates to: "Stop here and think of the fate that will befall you."
Loulé
Loulé, 16km northwest of Faro along a good road, is a vibrant and typically Algarvean market town set in almond-covered foothills. It is an ancient town, but only remnants of its once Roman, later Moorish castle walls remain. The castle walls are in the central area which is best known among visitors for its craftsmen, its old-world charm and its keenness to party.
>As you stroll around the narrow, cobbled streets, you will come across dimly-lit workshops. Peer in through the gloom and you will find artisans beating copper, stitching leather or selling wrought-iron, cane furniture, basketwork or embroidered goods.
Visit Loulé at Carnaval time, usually February, and you won't see much gloom. The merrymaking doesn't quite rival that in Rio de Janeiro, but people from all over the Algarve converge on the town for a couple of days of float and fancy-dress parades, general high-spirits, youthful high jinks and sometimes unfunny practical jokes involving fireworks or paint. If you intend to attend, wear old clothes.
Carnival comes before Lent. A much more sober pageant is held annually at Easter. A heavy and elaborate image of the Virgin Mary, a version known as "Mãe Soberana" (the Sovereign Mother), is carried in procession from the hilltop Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade, about 1km outside the town, to the Parish Church on Easter Sunday The return procession, a much bigger and more festive occasion, takes place two weeks later.
A handicrafts fair is held each August, but just about every morning, certainly on Saturdays, Loulé exudes a fair-like atmosphere in the Moorish-looking municipal market, built at the beginning of the century.
Vilamoura
The Vilamoura complex farther west is reputedly the biggest private holiday development in Portugal and perhaps the whole of Europe. Amid quality hotels and apartments, this is a holiday playground offering a large marina, a choice of three golf courses and a wide range of other sports facilities. The Roman gentry liked it here too. You can visit the site of a first-century nobleman's villa.
Outside of the individual complexes within the overall complex, the heart of the matter is really the beaches and marina. There are many restaurants and bars on or near the marina quayside.
Nearby, you can try your luck at the Vilamoura Casino. The cavernous casino restaurant features a nightly floor show. For film buffs there's a comfortable cinema with English-language films.
Albufeira
As a holiday destination, Albufeira appeals to people of all age groups. Retired couples feel just as at home here as teenagers and families with young children.
Albufeira is spread out rather than high-rise. The town itself consists of "old" and "new" sections which merge seamlessly into an extensive suburbia, spreading off back east along the coast to beaches at Balaia, Olhos d'Agua and Falesia, and west to São Rafael, Galé and the links golf course at Salgados. The whole area, greater Albufeira you could call it, is the largest tourist area in the Algarve, but people come here in droves and have the time of their lives.
Albufeira started out at least 2,000 years ago as a small, fortified town which the Romans called Baltrum. Eight centuries later the Moors renamed it Al-Buhera. The Moors turned it into a prosperous port trading with North Africa. The Knights of Santiago led the Christian re-conquest of the town in 1250, but without its trade links Albufeira fell upon hard times and they lasted for hundreds of years.
It suffered a succession of devastating earthquakes - in 1719, 1722 and worst of all in 1755 when the town was not only devastated by a series of earth tremors, but swamped by tidal waves. In 1833 it was first besieged then burnt to the ground during a Portuguese civil war. Prosperity only returned to Albufeira with the tourist boom that started in the late 1970's and gathered momentum in the 1980's.
Some of the old charm is still there, and it is to be found in the labyrinth of narrow streets, lined with whitewashed houses, restaurants, cafes and shops, which lead down the hillside to a central square, Largo Eng. Duarte Pacheco. The square is a good place to sit and watch the world go by. Nearby, next to the tourist information office, a tunnel at the end of a pedestrian-only mall leads on to the town's main beach. In the evening hundreds of people enjoy live music every night during the summer.
Another section of this long beach is equally easily accessible from the streets leading off the other end of the square. There the beach is known as Fisherman's Beach and it's shared with sun-hardened men of the sea mending their nets.
"New" Albufeira, centred on Areias de São João, is on the east side. Its most famous thoroughfare is affectionately known as The Strip. It stretches from the Montechoro Hotel, past scores of cafes, restaurants and bars, all the way down to a big busy beach called Praia da Oura. The Strip and nearby streets are a hive of activity from mid-morning, well into the wee hours the night.
Armação de Pêra
Armação de Pêra was originally a small fishing village where tuna used to be caught and brought up onto "Fisherman’s Beach"
The net that the fishermen used to catch the Tuna in was called "Armação" and as it is very close to "Pêra", the village was named Armaçao de Pêra.
The resort boasts one of the most beautiful beaches in the Algarve with pretty coves around the coastline and there are an excellent choice of Fish Restaurants, especially in the "Fisherman’s Beach" area of the town.
It is a great place for a relaxing holiday and has that certain something about it that you will really love.
The beach of Armação de Pêra is perfect for children as it is very calm and the slope is gradual, and in the daytime the Fishermen will take holidaymakers for a trip along the coastline where you can see the fascinating rock formations, caves and grottos.
Also in the area there is the tiny Romanesque Chapel of "Senhora da Rocha" (Our Lady of the Rocks) which is where fishermen used to pray before setting off for a nights fishing. This is apparently the area where there was a vision of the Virgin Mary.
The beaches that the Chapel overlooks are some of the prettiest in the Algarve and it is a wonderful place for taking photographs.
Carvoeiro
Praia do Carvoeiro is the place. Its name is nowadays usually simplified to Carvoeiro. Apart from its far-flung reputation, it has managed to keep a low profile, having spread sideways rather than upwards. Suburbs of good quality villas, many of them with private pools, have been built to the east and west of the village. There are a few good hotels in the vicinity, but essentially this is made up of holiday villas. It is very active in summer, but the villa shutters come down with the first signs of winter in early November and most of the neighbourhood goes into hibernation.
There is one notable area of continued activity throughout the winter and that is west of the village where the upmarket Carvoeiro Clube development maintains two excellent golf courses, the unique double nine-hole Quinta do Gramacho, and the pristine 18-hole Vale de Pinta.
Silves
Silves is at the heart of one of Portugal's best citrus growing areas. It also has factories processing cork. Although now an agricultural centre, its fascination for visitors is historical. The town's two most visible buildings, its red sandstone castle and the red and white cathedral next to it, are reminders that in medieval times this was the most strongly fortified and most strenuously fought over place in the Algarve.
The Romans had a secure settlement at Silves, but it was the Moors who built it into a fine, prosperous town with gleaming minarets and bazaars brimming over with merchandise. They called it Xelb and made it their regional capital. It was a place of peace and plenty in the 12th century. Then in 1189 Portuguese Christian forces, aided by thousands of English, German and Flemish Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, attacked the town. They razed everything outside the town walls and lay siege to the castle.
The castle is open to the public, but its ghastly past is lost amid well-tended jacaranda trees, oleander shrubs and flowerbeds. Apart from bits of the walls, the only Moorish feature left in the castle is a well, originally Roman, 65-metres deep. Another Moorish well is the central feature of a small, modern museum in a side street not far from the castle.
The reconquest of Silves was celebrated by the building of a cathedral on the site of a mosque. Much restored and rebuilt over the years, it contains the tombs of some of the Crusaders who died there.
Portimão
Portimão is the Algarve's second most important commercial town after Faro, and its second largest port after Olhão. It is a town of great antiquity but you wouldn't know it. The oldest building is its much modernised parish church. It contains 17th-and 18th-century tiles, but the only really old bit is the 14th century portal. Carthaginians, Romans and Moors lived and worked here.
Portimão today is really all about shopping and sardines. One of the best shopping streets is Rua do Comércio, a pedestrian mall which begins from the old market square near the parish church in the highest part of town. Beyond the far end of Rua do Comércio, acres of stalls are set up, as one of the Algarve's biggest and best roving markets hits town on the first Monday of each month. It is to be found down by the railway station.
The river, of course, is and always has been the town's life-blood. The fishing fleet ties up on the far bank, although much of its catch is brought over to Portimão's most popular open-air eating area. This is on the quayside by the old iron bridge. There are more restaurants, in converted boat houses, in the little square, just behind, serving a variety of seafood, from expensive tiger prawns to the cheapest of dishes, a plate of grilled sardines.
If you want to try catching your own fish on rod and line, the Portimão quayside is one of the main departure points in the Algarve for specially-equipped game boats. Various other types of craft tie up along the same waterfront with billboards offering sightseeing cruises along the coast, or up the river Arade to the historic town of Silves.
The Praça Teixeira Gomes, with its cafes next to the waterfront, is a local meeting place during the summer months. Nearby, a smaller square in front of the tourist information office, Lago 1 de Dezembro, is notable for its 19th-century tiled panels depicting 10 of the greatest events in Portuguese history.
Alvor
Alvor, situated on a river estuary, combines its reputation as a popular holiday resort with its tradition as a fishing village. The cobbled streets, filled with restaurants, bars and shops, meander through the village centre to the superb beaches. The fascinating towns of Portimão and Lagos are closeby and a short drive will take you into the lovely scenery and quaint villages of the Monchique hills.
Lagos
Lagos is the most historically interesting coastal town in the Algarve. Its fame derives from its association with Portugal's 14th-and 15th-century Age of Discovery. It was here that Henry the Navigator had his vessels built for the voyages of exploration down the coast of West Africa, which ultimately led to the sea route past the Cape of Good Hope to India.
The walls came tumbling down along with all the other buildings in Lagos with the great earthquake of 1755. Among those which were rebuilt and have since undergone renovation are the Church of Santa Maria with 16th-century traces, the 17th-century regimental storehouse next to it, and the stunning "golden" Church of Santo António which forms part of Lagos' rather eccentric museum.
Because of its bayside location and its proximity to lovely bathing beaches, it is a natural attraction for tourists. The latest major addition is the big yacht marina at the most sheltered end of the harbour. Dona Ana is the most popular family beach, but there are smaller sandy coves to be explored both closer and farther away from the town centre. The headland of Ponta da Piedada with its lighthouse is best viewed from the sea on a short boat trip. The clifftop is a good place to take a stroll with your camera and marvel at cliff erosion.
Lagos, with its relaxed atmosphere and quiet charm, make it one of the most appealing locations in the Algarve to visitors from abroad. The best places to sit and watch people go by are at the open-air cafés in Praça da República, next to the tourist information office. The best selection of restaurants is concentrated in the pedestrians-only Rua 25 de Abril.
Dona Ana is the most popular family beach, but there are smaller sandy coves to be explored both closer and farther away from the town centre. The headland of Ponta da Piedada with its lighthouse is best viewed from the sea on a short boat trip. The cliff top is a good place to take a stroll with your camera and marvel at cliff erosion.