Remote Past

The Phoenicians, who are said to have been the first settlers of the region, probably 1,000 years before Christ, were followed by the Romans, the Carthaginians and the Moors who had the strongest influence in the Al Gharb. There is plenty of surviving evidence of their 500 residencies such as the castle of Silves and “Cerro da Vila” in Vilamoura; some fortified structures (Silves, Paderne, Salir, Faro, Alcoutim, Tavira, Loulé and Aljezur); the names of localities beginning with “Al”, the “norias” and the “açoteias” and terraces used as roofing where almonds and figs are traditionally dried in the sun.

Glorious past

Finally conquered by the Moors in 1249, the Algarve was already playing an important part in the Portuguese expansion of North Africa. Henry, The Navigator, established a Nautical School in Sagres and the first Portuguese ships set sail to the Azores, Madeira and later to the Gulf of Guinea and Algarve-born Gil Eanes around the Cape of Bojador.

Recent past

The construction of an international airport on the outskirts of Faro in 1965 made the city a hub for tourist traffic across the region. The establishment both of the University of the Algarve and the Regional School of Music also had a positive impact on city life.