Faro Old Town (Cidade Velha)

Historic Quarter

Faro's Cidade Velha occupies the walled medieval core of the Algarve's capital city, entered through the magnificent Arco da Vila, an Italianate gateway built in 1812 on foundations laid by the Moors. Inside the walls, cobbled streets wind between whitewashed buildings adorned with traditional azulejo tiles, leading to the Largo da Se, a broad square dominated by the cathedral and the bishop's palace.

The Se de Faro was begun in the thirteenth century on the site of a Roman forum and later a Moorish mosque. Its interior combines Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements accumulated over centuries of rebuilding, most notably after the devastating earthquake of 1755 that destroyed much of the city. The bell tower offers panoramic views across the old town rooftops to the Ria Formosa lagoon beyond.

Several small museums cluster within the walls. The Museu Municipal, housed in the sixteenth-century Convento de Nossa Senhora da Assuncao, holds Roman mosaics excavated from nearby Milreu, medieval stonework and a collection of Moorish oil lamps. The cathedral's bone chapel, the Capela dos Ossos, lines its walls and ceiling with the skulls and bones of over a thousand monks.

The old town is remarkably quiet compared with the busy commercial streets beyond the walls. Restaurants with courtyard seating serve grilled fish and cataplana, the copper-pot seafood stew that originated in this part of the coast. Orange trees shade the squares and storks nest on the cathedral tower and church rooftops, a sight that has become one of Faro's most photographed images. The walls themselves date from the ninth century, with Roman, Moorish and medieval layers visible in the stonework.