Visit Tavira

At the advent of modern times, the city of Tavira witnessed great vigor and development which dwindled when the course of the Gilão River was diverted. The movements of armies departing for the conquests in North Africa and in defense of the areas which were under threat contributed much to this splendor. These factors helped Tavira to very quickly become the chief region of the Algarve, since it served as a port of call for all [ships] and a departure point for passengers and goods from the region, which included lots of honey, wax, leather goods, dried fish, dates, horses and livestock, among others, which brought great wealth to the land.

Commerce and the conquest campaigns, as well as the almadravas (traditional tuna fishing craft or armações do atum) brought great economic prosperity to the Algarve, but also a big problem: pirates and privateering. Boats, almadravas and villages became attractive, often being soft targets. In 1577, Brother João de S. José, author of Corografia do Reino do Algarve (Chorology of the Kingdom of the Algarve), described the instability in Tavira due to enemies who often carried out exercises on this coastline, which they [the noblemen residing in Tavira] watched over day and night in summertime, with their feet in stirrups and a lance in their hand. The incursions carried out into enemy territory by the Berbers were frequent and violent between the months of April and September, and were aimed at the following: obtaining agricultural products and tuna. Sometimes people were captured and reduced to lavery.

According to Valdemar Coutinho, what forced the Portuguese to take more defensive than offensive measures from the XVIth century onwards was above all the political and religious attitudes in Magreb. Religious leaders linked to a Zawiya (a type of convent), with great power over the people, incited political leaders to Yihad (jihad) against the Christians of North Africa and against the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, through attacks by privateers and pirates, which had devastating effects on the coastal populations.

In a region which is intimately linked with the sea and its riches, populations have long been establishing themselves along the coastline, exploiting marine resources, simultaneously blessed with the ease of contact with the sea and vulnerable to the evil intentions of some people brought to their door by the immense ocean.

In order to address these dangers, defensive systems were created throughout the centuries. These were of varying effectiveness, more or less in step with the military innovations which threatened them and especially conditioned by the political and economic stability of a country whose nerve centre was too far away.

In the municipality of Tavira, there are various examples of coastal defensive structures. However, of all the known structures on the coastline, only three have survived. The others were lost in time (due to their abandonment when their defensive qualities became obsolete), and are only known due to their having been recorded in historical texts. The oldest of the three structures is the circular tower at the site of Torre d’Aires, which was followed by the construction of Forte de Rato and Forte de S. João em Cabanas.

It is thought that the entire wall which passes behind the buildings on Rua da Liberdade, where, at the site of the Post Office there was once a tower, demolished in order to build that building, which was of Portuguese construction. Also from that period is the defensive work which, staring at Rua D. Paio Peres Correia, on the post office corner of which, inside a private building, a wall and an imposing tower were built, extends to Rua Miguel Bombarda to Largo dos Mouros and follows Rua dos Mouros to Rua da Porta do Postigo, where it joined the almoadan wall.

This wall, to which is attributed, a prior, a timeline which belongs to the Portuguese and on which several towers were built, such as the great oca tower, is completely encased by private houses or surrounded by courtyards which are very difficult to access, therefore any conclusion of an archaeological dig would be mere conjecture.

By the reign of D. Manuel, the Moors had already been completely dominated throughout the Iberian Peninsula, and the fight against islamicised population had shifted, more than a century prior to that time, to Northern Africa. In spite of Tavira not being a fortified city of great grandeur, the role which the city played as a base of support for the Portuguese campaign in Morocco and the commerce which was maintained in this area of Maghreb attracted a certain level of attention from the monarchy to the defensive restoration of the city. Apart from the gate which retains its name and which was aimed at facilitating communication between the area inside the walls and the surrounding area which was undergoing earnest expansion, the fortified section of the wall, erected in Rua de Trás dos Muros and swallowed up a substantial part of the military taipa towers, which, as has already been stressed, defended the Porta dos Pelames, was also from this period. Also of the same period is the section of the wall which borders the river, at Rua dos Pelames, and is still referred to as the Barbican. In this ante-wall, there is a door from this period which still opens, at the end of Rua de D. Ana, as can be affirmed from the bevelled stones which make up the pillars of the arch.