Page 319 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

Surfers running along the beach near Sagres at sunset

ALGARVE

The Algarve’s fertile soil and strategic headlands
and rivers have attracted visitors since the time of
the Phoenicians. Five centuries of Arab rule, from
AD 711, left a legacy that is still visible in the
region’s architecture, lattice chimneys, azulejos,
orange groves and almond trees. Place names
beginning with Al are also of Moorish origin;
Al-Gharb (“the West”) denoted the western
edge of the Islamic empire. When the Algarve
was reclaimed by the Christians in 1249, the
Portuguese rulers designated themselves kings
“of Portugal and of the Algarves”, emphasizing the
region’s separateness from the rest of the country.
It was the Algarve, however, that shot Portugal
to prominence in the 15th century, when Henry
the Navigator is said to have set up a school of
navigation at Sagres, and launched the age of
exploration from these southern shores. Three
centuries later the region was struck a devastating
blow by the earthquake of 1755, which destroyed
or damaged virtually all of the towns and villages.
Since the 1960s, when Faro airport was opened,
international tourism has replaced agriculture and
fishing as the region’s main industry. Nonetheless,
in places such as the pretty whitewashed village of
Alte or the border town of Alcoutim, the Algarve’s
rural way of life continues virtually uninterrupted.
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