Never any Portuguese king was crowned and hailed as being only “King of the Algarve” – at the time of consecration, was hailed as “King of Portugal and the Algarve” (until 1471), and later as “King of Portugal and the Algarve” (from 1471).

The First conquest

The title “King of the Algarve” was first used by Sancho I of Portugal, during the first conquest of Silves (Portugal) (Portugal) in 1189. Silves was just a city of Almohad Caliphate, since at this point all Andaluz it was unified under his rule. Thus, Sancho used interchangeably in their diplomas formulas “King of Portugal and Silves,” or “King of Portugal and the Algarve”; exceptionally, has combined the three titles in the “King of Portugal, Silves and Algarve”.

The only reason that can justify this new entitlement royal ties in with the tradition peninsular, to add to the monarch’s title of the achievements made (so, for example, the Kings of Leon and Castile were also “Kings of Toledo, Seville, etc. “)

With the Muslim reconquest of Silves, in 1191, the king stopped using this title.

The Second conquest

The Almohad Caliphate would disintegrate in Hispania in 1234, dissolving into several smaller emirates, the Taifa. The South of Portugal still in Muslim hands was attached to the Taifa of Niebla, in modern Spain; its emir, Musa ibn Mohammad ibn Nassir ibn Mahfuz, proclaimed shortly later “King of the Algarve” (amir al-Gharb), since their state understood in fact, the westernmost region of the Muslim Andalusian.

At the same time, the Portuguese and Castilian conquests to the south continued. In the reign of King Sancho II conquered is the ultimate Alentejo squares and even most of the modern Algarve, on the right bank of the River Guadiana; the date of its deposition and subsequent abdication of the Algarve remained only small Muslim enclaves in Lagos, Faro, Loulé and Albufeira, which, due to the territorial discontinuity and distance that separated them from Niebla, became independent of your domain.

So, in fact, Sancho II of Portugal appears as it would the second Portuguese king to be able to use the title of King of the Algarve, in the wake of his grandfather – which probably did not only due to their other domestic concerns, namely the civil war that opposed his brother, the Earl of Bologna and infant Afonso.

Indeed, it was this that ascended the throne in 1248, undertook the conquest of their last Moorish enclaves in the Algarve in 1249 assuming the title of “King of Portugal and the Algarve”, which no longer would be used by his successors until the end of the monarchy in Portugal.

A map from 1561, showing the distinction between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of the Algarve.

A substantial part of the responses to the Survey of the Marquis of Pombal as it became known, have been discovered in xx sec. But they have yet to find the answers to some key regions such as the Algarve.

As regards the data collected from the Algarve assumed particular importance another survey sent to parish priests in 1758, the priest Luís Cardoso, who worked in a Geographical Dictionary, and which included the following question: “If (the parish) suffered any ruin in the 1755 earthquake, and on what; and it is already fixed. ”

It is in the Algarve, and especially in the Western, that the damage caused by the earthquake that reach a higher level, suggesting the proximity of the epicentral region.

Unfortunately not know the answers to the Survey of the Marquis of Pombal, for the Algarve, so the information available result in much of the Parish Memories compiled in 1758 by Luis Cardoso priest, or missives loose. A letter in Lagoa, on 3 November, states that “in Lagos only stood a house castle, which is the Palace of residence governors and generals captains of this kingdom,” while “in New Portimão Vila fell the sumptuous college building of the Society of Jesus Fathers, and all of the churches, except that of the Holy Body. ”

SILVES. In Silves, according to the same report, “he lost the Cathedral, Tower, Castle and walls, Town Hall and the Audience, chain a religious convent … and entire streets were ruined, losing them infinite people.” In many villages the damage are described as total. Boliqueime was rebuilt elsewhere, so the houses were reduced to rubble.

BISHOP’S VILLAGE. Also in Vila do Bispo “every house came down.”
In a letter written by the Bishop of the Algarve to Father Manuel Portal can be read that “completely ruined this town of Faro, the Lagos, Silves, Loulé village, the Albufeira, the Bishop, Vila Nova de Portimão Boliqueime; but especially Lagos and Albufeira, which came as the sea with hellish fury took what was left of the ruins of the earthquake, but yet I do not think dead numbered about twelve hundred to a thousand and three hundred. ” All the settlements mentioned in the letter are located to the west of Faro, the western Algarve.

FARO. Faro was the extensive list of important buildings that suffered collapse, as the Cathedral, the Episcopal Palace, and the main churches and convents. But in the eastern Algarve sector, or Sotavento, they are already variables reported degrees of destruction.

OLHÃO. Olhão “suffered little ruin,” and São Lourenço of Almancil is reported to us that “only five tiles … fell from the top of the dome” of the church. Further east, however, the damage will have been very important, especially in Tavira and Castro Marim. In the coastal towns of the Algarve, a significant part of the damage appears to have been caused by the tsunami – or tsunami (tidal wave in Japanese) – that as a result of the earthquake, hit the coast about 15 minutes after the seismic waves.

The 1755 Tsunami in the Algarve

The HISTORIAN Damião de Faria e Castro, who was in Faro to the earthquake date, talk follows the tidal wave, or tsunami, “In the Peru earthquake (in 1746) … caused considerable admiration the major setback that made the sea. He left discovered off the ground at its bottom, which then has to be filled by one mole of water accustomed … In our coast has seen the first effect of it back; but soon to return so impetuous that exceeding their limits in some parts mounted high rocks ninety fathoms in other went beyond the long spaces for inland beaches. So I discussed that I, as the earthquake would open large hollows in the vast seabed, filling these large copy of its waters, this decrease would like them back. That after making a close and to go up joining the same cavities, they spit the water itself reconcentrated with such momentum that, while it lasted them, made them run out of the common goals of its floods. That alternating times in which he progressed in his career that would be the extent to which the mouths were closed, and spitting the water. ”

The historian’s intuition captured in a remarkable way the essence of the generation of the tsunami caused by the deformation of the ocean floor in the vicinity of the epicentral region, which disturb the overlying water column. The conceptual model of sismogénica rupture of a fault – the elastic rebound or elastic rebound – which would pave the way to a more rigorous understanding of the genesis of the tsunami would only be developed at the beginning of sec. XX, which makes this surprisingly advanced explanation Faria and Castro.

THIS REPORT give us account of the tsunami’s effects on the Algarve …

ALBUFEIRA. A large part of unsuspecting residents of the village of Albufeira, which is situated on a prominent rock came down to find asylum on the beach, which was to secure. It came the sea and swallowed them all.

PORTIMAO. In Portimão Village, on the ruins she felt pitiful, it was horrendous fighting the waves. Its bar forms a big mouth moored between two high rocks, which are opposite each other strongholds of Santa Catarina and São João. For she went tight formidable waves on, they ran up the river more than a league. They hit the walls of the Barbican, and all who encountered them without embankment was slaying the parapets, to leave the shallow …

LAGOS. Lagos was another particular object of the wrath of the sea, and earthquake. Almost all the temples and houses were flattened with great loss of life and leather.

ALVOR. The sea that ran the beach of Alvor everything was downing. Led fishermen who pulled by the networks. Buildings that did not leave traces of the places where they were. He attacked the strong call of Meia Praia, and drew in half, getting cut the bulwark that addresses the west. Here was give strong repelões in Lagos thick fortification wall. All that hit wiped out. ”
(Text adapted from the original “The 1755 Lisbon earthquake,” John Duarte Fonseca, ed. Argumentum, Lisbon, 2004)

Lagos and Sagres have remained forever linked to Prince Henry the Navigator and the Discoveries. Even today, in Ponta de Sagres, a giant finger of rock pointing to the Atlantic Ocean in a clear allusion to the courage of the Algarve navigators, such as Gil Eanes, who set sail across the seas in search of new worlds to give the world.

The Sagres School is one of the great myths in Portuguese history, the result of chronic disabilities of old interpretations. Based on the assumption that Prince Henry, which would have been a nautical school in Sagres, founded by Prince Henry, circa 1417, in the Algarve. The school, center nautical, would thus formed great discoverers like Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus.

After his return from Ceuta, Prince Henry set up in Sagres in Vila do Infante, surrounding yourself masters in the arts and sciences related to navigation and creates a Tercena Naval that is common to call Sagres School. In fact, what was created was not a school in the modern sense of the word, but a meeting place of sailors and scientists which, using the science of doctors and the practice of skilled sailors, have developed new methods to navigate, drew letters and adapted ships.

According to the chroniclers of the time, they largavam every year two or three ships to the findings. The first to mention the existence of a school was English historian Samuel Purchas in the seventeenth century, although even before Damiao de Gois alluded to the idea of ​​a school sponsored by Prince. The myth was later consolidated by Portuguese historians.

Brands this story so far, but still so present in the Algarve soul, are scattered throughout the region. Visit Aljezur, Lagos, Silves, Faro, Tavira, Castro Marim and Alcoutim is to discover in each museum, church, forts and castles greatness of Portuguese history, its people and traditions.

By mid-century. XIII, the the Algarve Portugal are the latest to be reclaimed from the Muslim rule.

After long advances and retreats, the Christian reconquest has the invaluable collaboration of the Knights of the Order of Santiago, led by Paio Peres Correia, to the reign of King Afonso III put an end to the Arab presence in the Algarve region and join the kingdom of Portugal. Besides Silves, Tavira and Faro, Algarve current capital, are definitely taken from the Moors. It was thus founded the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarve.

The Portuguese like to say that “the Algarve is not representative of Portugal.” What they really mean is that you will find here the greatest influence of Arab culture in Portugal. The name Algarve, like all names with the prefix AL is of Arabic origin and means “the West” To beyond the centuries when this region was occupied by the Arabs, this is also known for its important role in the history of Portuguese discoveries (Sagres).

Arab Influence in the Portuguese language

Among the words that the Arabs bequeathed to the Portuguese language, the vast majority is easily identifiable, it begins by al- prefixes, az-, as- (corresponding to the Arabic definite article) or od- (meaning river).

Perhaps their presence is more noticeable in place names, but in all areas of knowledge exist, in Portuguese, Arabic-derived terms, testimony of its passage through Portuguese territory for nearly five centuries.

From the famous “Razor Rice” farense, the beautiful grilled sardines Portimão up to sweets “Gift Rodrigos” of Lagos, are wonders for everyone. The town of Monchique stands out in this chapter as it is known for pig farming, proof of this are the known sausage made with pork (sauce, black pudding flour or sausage, black pudding and smoked sausage) and ham, exhibited annually at the Fair of Sausages and Fair Ham, respectively. It is also widely known to aquardente fro produced in this region, with its own brand, which attracts people from everywhere to savor. They are also sought liqueurs made with local produce.

A list of some of the best delicacies then presents itself:

typical dishes

sweet-stuff

The image can be seen one of the pictures for which the Algarve is best known. Almonds are widely used in the cuisine of the region, highlighting the almond sweets, exported all over the country and abroad, which is another milestone in the Algarve culture.

This applies to the chimney so-called ex-libris of the village, built on the secular houses as a keep in miniature. In it, the mysteries involve questions in the reliefs, at the coronation in shots of pine cones, in the circle of staff ends, the wheel of curious rays. And most intriguing is the human figure patent it. Dating from 1793, this chimney is on the street chimney.

Close by, in the Mail Tray, rises another chimney, probably of the century. XVIII. It has four faces that rise by torn cracks vertically, showing up at the base four circular loops, one on each face.

In the same historic area of ​​Vila is another sign of the local genuineness of the chimneys. It is the Lion of Porches, century building. XVIII where the restaurant with the same name works, boasting a splendid fireplace that features a lion crowned with vine leaves.

Strolling through the village, notice on rooftops, will surely find many more deserving chimneys of his contemplation.