At the beginning of the XV century, the beginning of the Portuguese maritime expansion brought a new vigor to the Algarve and its people.

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.