112km
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FOIA TOUR BARLAVENTO
All that is left of the church, which was as sober as the convent section, is a very fine doorway. After that there is the College of the Jesuits, with its austere and majestic lines, commissioned between 1660 and 1707 by Diogo Gonçalves, a nobleman who became rich in the Far East. Its church, the largest in the Algarve, has only one nave (a characteristic of the “igreja salão” or “hall church”). The Chapel of São José with its simple façade, is located in an old part of the city, in front of the naval shipyards. Nearby is the old “Feu” Canning Factory which has been turned into the Municipal Museum: it is a building dating from the end of the 19th century and a fine example of industrial archaeology. The Portimão Marina, for its part, provides a busy area of entertainment and shopping, and a nice artificial beach. Nearby in Praia da Rocha, the cliffs surround a huge area of sand. From the Bela Vista viewing point, the blue sea merges with the horizon, sparkling in the sun. The Fortress of Santa Catarina de Ribamar keeps watch over the mouth of the Arade and together with the Fort of São João on the other side of the river (in Ferragudo), ensured that the city and the harbour were defended in former times. Leaving the town to the west, we reach Praia do Vau, whose hallmarks are its warm, calm waters and fine sands. A little further on, the Ponta de João Arens is a natural viewpoint, forming the end of the cliffs which surround the Três Irmãos beach, while the Prainha (small beach) lies hidden away between the rocks where seagulls fly and whose waters are frequented by divers. The clear waters allow underwater mysteries to be uncovered and, who knows, some treasure from one of the many vessels that have been shipwrecked here over the centuries. The next stop is in Alvor. A small paradise without equal, the Ria de Alvor has the sea on one side and the vast estuary of the river on the other, separated by a long dune. This is a place of total calm, which can best be enjoyed on unforgettable boat trips. The traditional fishermen keep alive the skills of fishing and gathering shellfish, as well as their brightly coloured boats. Tradition has it that they came from Monte Gordo, some to try and get on board a ship heading for the New World, others fleeing from the Marquês de Pombal, who had their huts on the beach pulled down to force them to live in Vila Real de Santo António. Migratory birds make their nests in the salt-marsh, gliding and circling over the shallow waters next to the shore, skimming the blue sea
Ferragudo
This tour takes us from Monchique - Fóia Portimão to Fóia and back again, and we will travel from the mighty rocks at Praia da Rocha, lapped by the sea and moulded by the wind into such charming freaks of nature, up to the highest point in the Algarve, Fóia, which rises up proudly from the green landscape of the Serra de Monchique. This will be a look at different parts of the Algarve, a tour consisting of contrasts and surprises. Before leaving Portimão, we can discover something of the tourist city, buzzing with life, a town which was born between the banks of the river Arade and the sea. History tells is that Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and Arabs all went up the river Arade to Silves, and left remains in the area. But it was the Portuguese Discoveries in the middle of the 15th century, which gave birth to what has become the modern city of Portimão. Any tour around the city inevitably starts in the historical centre where some sections of the mediaeval walls still stand in between the houses. But it is the architecture from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries that characterises these streets, with their two-storey houses, balconies with wrought iron railings, stone door and window surrounds and walls clad in tiles. The narrow streets of the old quarter of fishermen and merchants, like the Largo da Barca, in the Rua Nova, or of the Postigo da Igreja are examples of this. In terms of monuments, the church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of the Conception) should be visited with its sandstone doorway, engraved in a fine façade. Near the river, not far from the harbour entrance is the Convent of São Francisco built in 1535. Portimão - Rocha Beach
FOIA TOUR BARLAVENTO
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