Eastern Algarve - Tavira

From Santa Luzia we went east to Tavira where we spent about an hour and a half.

Tavira straddles the Gilão river, which is spanned by a couple of bridges, one is reputed to be a Roman in origin, although its present appearance was acquired in the 17th century. Because of flooding damage in the 1980's it is now limited to pedestrian traffic.

Tavira is a picturesque town but, unfortunately, I have very few pictures and the ones I have show essentially nothing of the town, but I have included them anyway.

Between the 8th and 13th centuries Tavira was under Arab rule until its conquest by the Knights of the Order of Santiago in 1242. It was elevated to a city in 1520 by King Manuel I and was the main trading port in the Algarve during the 16th to 18th centuries.

The 13th century castle, re-built by King Dinis on Moorish fortifications, gives fantastic views across Tavira from the walls. The photo to the right and the one below were taken from the top of the walls of the fortress.

Tavira, it is said, has some of the finest churches in the Algarve and they are plentiful too, in fact there are more than 20 in and around the town! The 16th century Igreja da Misericórdia is often cited as one of the finest churches in Tavira, with its blue and white azuejos, magnificent carvings and scenes from the life of Christ. I don't have photo of it.

The 13th century Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo is next to the castle. Santa Maria (the church in the photo to the right) is famed for holding the tombs of the seven Christian knights of the Order of St. James who were killed by the Moors. There is also a plaque marking the tomb of Paio Peres Correia (a master of the Order) although there is a church in Spain also said to hold the tomb!

We saw three churches from the outside and one also inside while a service was on. They were Igreja da Misericórdia , which is apparently no longer functioning, St. James and Santa Maria. I have photos of two of the churches - the Santa Maria in which, it is said, Prince Henry the Navigator was knighted and, I think, St. James' - the last photo.

On the walk up to the castle there is an active archaeological dig. These relatively recent archaeological discoveries contain structures and artifacts concerning the Phoenician, Islamic and Portuguese history of Tavira. We didn't see this during this visit but did in a visit to Tavira in 2009.

We had "coffee" in a place in the main square and then left for our visit to Rato, the final destination which I described in the first post on our eastern Algarve trip.