Faro History Facts and Timeline

(Faro, Algarve, Portugal)

As the most southern town in Portugal, Faro enjoys a unique role in this country's composition. Unlike other resort towns along the sun-drenched Mediterranean coast, the history of Faro is ancient and rich, with touches of Phoenician, Roman and Moorish culture still sprinkled around the city.

Today, the city is all about tourism and holiday makers. However, as the Algarve region's capital, it also oversees much administrative business.

Ossonoba

The city's location along the Ria Formosa lagoon has been attracting people since the Paleolithic era, although the modern history of Faro really began when a settlement known as Ossonoba made the area its home. Both the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians had their turn at the wheel of Ossonoba, creating trade routes around the region. During the Roman era Ossonoba was already an important port for maritime trade along the Mediterranean, laying the foundations for modern-day Faro.

The Times of the Moors

The Arabic Moors took over the Algarve region in the 8th century, but allowed Ossonoba to keep its status as the main port town in the far south-west of the Iberian Peninsula. The history of Faro developed immensely during the 500 years of the Moors' rule. The city was even the capital of the kingdom in the 9th century, when it was encircled by stone walls and eventually received its present name of Faro.

Faro had a sizeable Jewish population during this period and was known for its cosmopolitan atmosphere. During the 11th century, it reached its peak under the Moors as the refined capital of a regional principality.

Like all of the Moorish strongholds on the Iberian Peninsula, Faro eventually fell to the Christians. It was, however, the last major Portuguese city to be taken back by the Christians. King Afonso III finally managed to conquer it in the year of 1249.

The Capital of the Algarve

King Afonso III made Faro the capital of the Algarve region after forcing the Moors out. The city enjoyed continued respect and prosperity under its new Christian rulers, developing even more into a centre of culture and learning. The earliest books printed in Portugal were created here by a Jewish printer in the latter years of the 15th century, while the 16th century was also something of a golden age for Faro, as it gained city status under the Portuguese and its population reached new heights.

The End of the Good Times

The good times came crashing down in 1596, when history remembers the arrival of the Spanish and how they took over the Algarve. A terrible event happened just a year later, when the Earl of Essex was returning home to England from his adventures in Spain. He and his troops stopped off at Faro, plundered the city and stole hundreds of valuable texts from the library of the bishop's palace, before burning much of the city to the ground. Today, these priceless books are part of Oxford University's Bodleian Library.

A Series of Rebuilding

Just as the city had rebuilt itself from the ravages of the English Earl of Essex, a big earthquake ruined everything in 1722. Once again, the city rebuilt itself when the bigger earthquake of 1755 literally flattened Faro with a subsequent tidal wave.

Only parts of the historic city centre survived, and so what visitors see today elsewhere in Faro was entirely built after 1755. By 1834, the city had recovered sufficiently to be named the capital of the Algarve once again and today it exists primarily on the proceeds from a brisk trade in tourism.