| Faro is the Algarve’s capital city and also its largest. It is the main transport centre; bus/rail/plane, and most foreign visitors to the Algarve with have passed through Faro’s major international airport. Nevertheless, Faro itself is surprisingly charming, with its pedestrianized streets of white cobbles and pleasant marina. |
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| The Old Town, partially surrounded by battlement walls, contains several sites of historical interest, in spite of the fact that, along with the rest of the region, much of the city was destroyed in the earthquake of 1755. |
| A trading station for the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, it was under the Romans that Faro became a major seaport known as Ossónoba. Later the Visigoths built a large church in the city dedicated to St Mary and the name Ossónoba was gradually replaced by Santa Maria of the West, then Santa Maria de Harun (after Mohammad ibn Said ibn Harun, a Berber ruler of the city), and then Santa Maria de Faro. |
| Having alternated with Silves as the Islamic capital of Algarve, Faro was finally conquered by Afonso III of Portugal in 1249. In 1577 the Episcopal chair was transferred from Silves to Faro and not long afterwards, in 1596, whilst Faro was under Spanish rule, the city was sacked and burned by the Earl of Essex and his troops who were returning from Cadiz. During this raid the Earl of Essex pillaged a substantial number of theological works from the Bishop’s Palace and later presented then to the Bodlian Library at Oxford University. |
| Although the city suffered the drastic effects of the earthquake of 1755, there is much to see that is of historical interest. |
| For example one can visit the remains of the Moorish battlements in the charming old city, the cathedral with its impressive chapels rich in ornate gilt carving and 13th century tower, and the old convent of Nossa Senhora da Assumção which now houses the famous Archaeological Museum of the Algarve. |
| Further, there is the Igreja do Carmo, a baroque church, interesting in itself for the exquisite guilt work of the altar, with an interesting Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) to the rear, the interior of which is completely lined with the skulls of corpses dug up in an adjacent cemetery. |
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