Sights in The Algarve
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Lagos
Lagos oozes life. A vibrant, sunny town, its pretty cobbled streets bristle with cafes, restaurants and bars. It's a magnet for backpackers and surf dudes, who swing between its clubs and nearby sweeping beaches and striking coastal coves. Lagos also has historical clout, having launched many naval excursions during Portugal's Age of Discoveries.
Lagos' little Igreja de Santo António (Rua General Alberto da Silveira; admission €2; 09:30-12:30 & 14:00-17:00 Tue-Sun), bursting with 18th- and 19th-century gilded, carved wood, is a stupendous baroque extravaganza. Beaming cherubs and ripening grapes are much in evidence.
Enter from the adjacent Museu Municipal (tel: 282…
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Igreja de São Lourenço de Matos
It’s worth making a detour here, 13km northwest of Faro and about 6km south of Loulé, to visit the marvellous Igreja de São Lourenço de Matos. The church was built on the site of a ruined chapel after local people, while digging a well, had implored the saint for help and then struck water.
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Lagos Beaches
South of town the beaches - Batata, Pinhão, Dona Ana, Camilo and others - are smaller and more secluded, lapped by calm waters and punctuated with amazing grottoes, coves and towers of coloured sandstone. Avoid swimming at Batata and, to the east, at Ana. There's a ferry to Lagos beach.
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Tavira
The Rio Gilão runs through Tavira's centre, reflecting elegant houses and inspiring tourist brochures to call it the Venice of the Algarve. Topped by castle ruins and packed with 16th- to 18th-century buildings and 37 churches, Tavira is the Algarve's most genteel town. It's 3km (1.8mi) from the coast, and near beautiful, unspoilt beaches on Ilha de Tavira.
Built in the 1540s, the Igreja da Misericórdia (Rua da Galeria; admission free; 10:00-13:00 Mon, Wed & Fri) is the Algarve's most important Renaissance monument, with a magnificent carved, arched doorway topped by statues.
The 13th-century Gothic Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo (admission free; 09:30-12:00 &…
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Castelo
The russet-coloured, Lego-like castle has great views over the town and surrounding countryside. It was restored in the 1940s and you can walk around its chunky sandstone walls. The whole site is Islamic and Christian (8th to 13th centuries). In the north wall you can see a treason gate, an escape route through which turncoats would sometimes let the enemy in, typical of castles at the time. The Moorish occupation is recalled by a deep well and a rosy-coloured water cistern, 5m deep and constructed at the end of the 12th century. Inside, the cistern’s four vaults are supported by 10 columns. Most probably built in the 11th century, the castle was abandoned by the 16th…
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Monchique
A fiercely beautiful, lilting landscape surrounds this small, bustling hill town in the forested Serra de Monchique, Algarve's mountain range. It's a crisp-aired contrast to the coast, and a great region for biking, walking or horse riding. If you're not feeling energetic, there's a spa hidden in woodland and a wonderful private zoo for endangered species.
You can find commercial brands of medronho (a locally made firewater) everywhere in Portugal, but according to those who have suffered enough hangovers to know, the best of all is the Monchique privately made brew.
The Serra de Monchique is thick with medronho's raw material - the arbutus, or strawberry tree. Its…
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Sé
The sé was completed in 1251, on what was probably the site of a Roman temple, then a Visigoth cathedral and then a Moorish mosque. Only the tower gate and several chapels remain of the original Romanesque-Gothic exterior – the rest was devoured in 1755. It was rebuilt in a polygamy of Gothic, Renaissance and baroque styles, with intense gilded carving alongside elaborate tilework inside. The baroque organ is worth noting. Climb up to the rooftop miradouro (lookout) for views across the pretty walled town to the sea. If you’re lucky, you might see storks nesting in the bell towers. The cathedral buildings also house the Museu Capitular, with an assortment of sacred…
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Museu Municipal
Faro’s domed and splendid 16th-century Renaissance Convento de Nossa Senhora da Assunção, in what was once the Jewish quarter, houses the Museu Municipal, formerly called the Museu Arqueológico. Highlights are the 3rd-century Mosaic of the Ocean, found in 1976 on a building site; 9th- to 13th-century domestic Islamic artefacts; and works by a notable Faro painter, Carlos Filipe Porfírio, depicting local legends. Ask for the informative pamphlets in English about some of the exhibits, including the interesting Paths of the Roman Algarve, an atmospheric display of large rocks and plinths, and Walks Around the Historic Centre (The Inward Village).
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Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo
Beside the castle, the Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo, is a 13th-century Gothic Church, built on the site of a Moorish mosque but rebuilt by an Italian neoclassicist following earthquake damage 500 years later. However, the architect retained traces of the former church - namely the main doorway, two side chapels and Arabic-style windows in the clock tower. Inside is a plaque marking the tomb of Dom Paio Peres Correia, who won the town back from the Moors, as well as those of the seven Christian knights whose murder by the Moors precipitated the final attack on Tavira.
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Museu Municipal de Arqueologia
Just below the cathedral is the impressive, well-laid-out Museu Municipal de Arqueologia. In the centre is a well-preserved 4m-wide, 18m-deep Moorish well surrounded by a spiral staircase, which was discovered during excavations. The find, together with other archaeological discoveries in the area, led to the establishment of the museum on this site; it shows prehistoric, Roman and Moorish antiquities. One wall is of glass, showing a section of the fort wall (also of Almohad origin) that is used to support the building.
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Quatro Águas
You can walk 2km east along the river, past the fascinating, snowlike salt pans to Quatro Águas. The salt pans produce tiptop table salt and in summer attract feeding birds, including flamingos. Besides being the jumping-off point for Ilha de Tavira, the seaside hub of Quatro Águas has a couple of seafood restaurants and a former tuna-canning factory - now a luxury hotel, across the river. There's also a bus that leaves from the Tavira bus station July to mid-September, as well as taxis.
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Sé
The sé, built in 1189 on the site of an earlier mosque, then rebuilt after the 1249 Reconquista and subsequently restored several times following earthquake damage. The stark, fortress-like building has a multi-arched Portuguese-Gothic doorway, and some original Gothic touches left, including the nave and aisles and a dramatically tall, strikingly simple interior. There are several fine tombs, one of which is purported to be of João do Rego, who helped to settle Madeira.
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Praça do Infante
Near Praça do Infante is a less-than-glorious site - where slaves were auctioned off in Portugal in the 15th century. It now houses an art gallery. Just south of Praça do Infante is a restored section of the stout town walls, built (atop earlier versions) during the reigns of both Manuel I and João III in the 16th century, when the walls were enlarged to the existing outline. They extend intermittently, with at least six bastions, for about 1.5km around the central town.
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Arco da Vila
You enter the old town through the neoclassical Arco da Vila, built by order of Bishop Francisco Gomes, Faro's answer to the Marquês de Pombal, who oversaw the city's reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake. The top of the street opens into the orange tree-lined Largo da Sé, with the câmara municipal (town hall) on the left, the Paço Episcopal (Bishop's Palace) on the right and the ancient sé (cathedral) in front of you.
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Paço Episcopal
Facing the cathedral is the 18th-century Paço Episcopal, with a pointy red roof and finished in multicoloured azulejos (hand-painted tiles), successor to the previous Episcopal dwelling trashed by British troops in 1596. It houses changing exhibitions of sacred art, and is worth stopping in to glimpse the finely crafted interior. At the southern end of the square is a small 15th-century town gate, the Arco da Porta Nova, leading to the ferry pier.
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Museu da Cortiça
The Museu da Cortiça is housed in the Fábrica do Inglês (English Factory), a large complex, unashamedly catering to large groups. The museum, with the former workshops, machine room and press room, has good bilingual displays on the process and history of cork production. Cork was a major industry in Silves for 150 years, until the factory’s closure in the mid-1990s, largely due to the silting-up of the Rio Arade.
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Ponta da Piedade
Protruding south from Lagos, Ponta da Piedade (Point of Piety) is a stunning, dramatic wedge of headland. Three windswept kilometres out of town, the point is well worth a visit for its contorted, polychrome sandstone cliffs and towers, complete with lighthouse and, in spring, hundreds of nesting egrets. The surrounding area is brilliant with wild orchids in spring. On a clear day you can see east to Carvoeiro and west to Sagres.
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Castelo dos Governadores
Castelo dos Governadores was built by the Arabs. After the Reconquista in the 13th century, the Algarve's military government was established here in the 14th century. It's said that the ill-fated, evangelical Dom Sebastião attended an open-air Mass here and spoke to the assembled nobility from a small Manueline window in the castle, before leading them to a crushing defeat at Alcácer-Quibir (Morocco).
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Milreu Ruins
Set in beautiful countryside, the ruins of this grand Roman villa provide a rare opportunity to gain insight into Roman life. The 1st-century-AD ruins reveal the characteristic form of a peristyle villa, with a gallery of columns around a courtyard. In the surrounding rooms geometric motifs and friezes of fish were found.
Tantalising glimpses of the villa’s former glory include the fish mosaics in the bathing chambers, which are located to the west of the villa’s courtyard.
The remains of the bathing rooms include the apodyterium (changing room; note the arched niches and benches for clothes and postbath massage) and the frigidarium, which had a marble basin to hold…
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Praça da República
For centuries, this sociable town square on the riverfront served as promenade and marketplace, where slaves were traded along with less ignominious commodities such as fish and fruit. The market moved to Jardim do Coreto in 1887 to improve hygiene, only moving again in 2000 to a new riverside location. The mercado municipal is held mornings from Monday to Saturday.
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Igreja Matriz
The igreja matriz has an extraordinary, star-shaped Manueline porch decorated with twisted columns that look like lengths of knotted rope, and a simple interior, with columns topped with more stony rope, and some fine chapels, including one whose vault contains beautiful 17th-century glazed tiles showing Sts Francis and Michael killing the devil.
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Castelo
What’s left of the castle is surrounded by a small and very appealing garden. The defence might date back to Neolithic times; it was rebuilt by Phoenicians in the 8th century and later taken over by the Moors. What stands today dates mostly from 17th-century reconstruction. The restored octagonal tower offers fine views over Tavira. Note: don’t set the kids free here – ramparts and steps are without railing.
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Gothic Church
This 13th-century Gothic church, beside the castle, was built on the site of a Moorish mosque but rebuilt by an Italian neoclassicist following earthquake damage 500 years later. However, the architect retained traces of the former church – namely the main doorway, two side chapels and Arabic-style windows in the clock tower.
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Ponte Romana
This seven-arched bridge that loops away from Praça da República may predate the Romans but is so named because it linked the Roman road from Castro Marim to Tavira. The structure you see dates from a 17th-century reconstruction. The latest touch-up job was in 1989, after floods knocked down one of its pillars.
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Church
Built in the 1540s, this church is the Algarve’s most important Renaissance monument, with a magnificent carved, arched doorway topped by statues of Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia, São Pedro and São Paulo. The church’s stone mason, André Pilarte, also worked on Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.
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