São Brás de Alportel

District: São Brás de Alportel
Region: Faro, Portugal
Post Code: 8150
Distance from Faro: 22 km
Residents: 10.000


Located in the countryside, the village of São Brás was the birthplace of the famous Moorish poet Ibn Ammarin the 12th Century. Already in the 16th Century the small village had a hermitage. Due to its mild climate São Brás became the summer residence of the bishops of the Algarve from the 17th Century onwards. The Episcopal palace, built in the 17th and 18th Century as a refuge from the heat of the summer, was modified in the following centuries, so that today only part of the main building and a baroque fountain remain.

The main church was constructed after the earthquake in 1755 on a site of an older church dating back to the 15th Century. The building was significantly expanded during the 19th Century. The Chapel of Senhor dos Passos is worth while visiting because of its carvings, paintings and statues. The churchyard offers fantastic views to the sea and the surrounding landscape.

In the 19th Century the town became an important crossroads. The plantations of cork fostered the commercial development and São Bras de Alportel evolved to the biggest cork producer in Portugal and worldwide.

The António Bentes Cultural Centre once was the home of a wealthy muleteer who grew rich in the cork trade. The museum exhibits the typical costumes worn in the 19th and 20th Century at the Algarve and is a good example of the architecture of that period.

Many of the region's traditional arts and crafts still thrive in São Brás de Alportel, as can be seen from the brooms and brushes made with palm leaves in Soalheira, the objects woven from coarse esparto grass in Peral, Alfarrobeira da Tumba, the stonemasonry of Chibeira and Corotelo and the panniers and baskets of Desbarato. Tiles and bricks are still produced by hand in Vale de Mealhas, wrought iron work in Vilarinhos and Gralheira.