Tavira

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  • Transport
    train: from Faro
bus: from Faro

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Lonely Planet review

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; - 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; - & - ), beside the castle, was built on the site of a Moorish mosque but rebuilt by an Italian neoclassicist following earthquake damage 500 years later. 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.

What's left of the castle (admission free; - Mon-Fri, - Sat & Sun) is surrounded by a decidedly unwar-like garden. The defence is thought to have been based on a Neolithic site; it was rebuilt by Phoenicians in the 8th century and then shortly afterwards taken over by the Moors. What you see today mostly dates from 17th-century reconstruction.