Tavira

Tavira lies on the Gilão in the eastern Algarve, near the river's meeting with the Atlantic. A Phoenician settlement once stood on the hill of Santa Maria, while the medieval town grew into an important port of the Islamic west. Its castle and the bridge across the river preserve traces of that period. Paio Peres Correia captured Tavira in 1242, bringing it under Christian rule. In the eighteenth century its harbor shipped salt, dried fish and wine, before the earthquake of 1755 devastated much of the town.