Where is Carvoeiro?
Carvoeiro, which many people call and primarily associate with the beach of Praia de Carvoeiro, is located on the southern coast of Portugal in the Algarve province. To the west, Carvoeiro neighbors the village of Ferragudo, as well as Portimao, and to the east - with Armasão de Pêra and Albufeira. The resort of Carvoeiro has been a separate civil district in the municipality of Lagoa since 1985, and on April 19, 2001, it was granted the status of a city. Carvoeiro has a population of 2,721.
The national currency is the euro (EUR).
History of Carvoeiro
The Carvoeiro area has been attacked by pirates and other nations' navies from the sea for centuries. Naval battles have been fought along the coast of the city, one of the most famous of which took place in 1544.
In the Muslim period, the fishermen's village of Carvoeiro was called Caboiere. During the late Middle Ages, Carvoeiro, as well as neighboring coastal villages, were attacked by Moroccan corsairs who unloaded on the beaches and invaded the towns, plundering the homes of locals and taking people to Morocco's slave market. Fire towers were erected along the coast of Carvoeiro for defense purposes. Today, only the facade and walls of the ancient fortifications remain largely intact.
In 1587, the English privateer Sir Francis Drake launched an attack on Carvoeiro. The forces of his fleet destroyed much of the fortified defenses. In the following decades, the city continued to be attacked by the English, as well as the French and Dutch, taking advantage of Portugal's integration into Spain and various conflicts between European countries.
There are ruins of a settlement from the time of Roman occupation in Carvoeiro. In addition, the remains of ships near the coast are silent witnesses of ancient sea battles. In particular, a ship that was sunk in the summer of 1554 in the open sea near the Alfanzina lighthouse (east of Carvoeiro). In addition, in 1719, an English merchant ship with cargo was wrecked near Cape Carvoeiro due to an attack by corsairs.
In the following years, Carvoeiro lived a relatively quiet, measured life. In the 1960s, a tourism boom gradually transformed the town into a beautiful, cozy resort. Today there are many new hotels, residential complexes and tourist infrastructure, which has not overshadowed the traditional architecture of the Portuguese town. This is how it was loved by the Irish artist Patrick Swift, who painted a huge number of landscapes of the coast of Carvoeiro, and also wrote a book about what life was like in the town in the 1960s.
