Faro

The Ria Formosa drew people from the Palaeolithic onwards, and from the 4th century BC, when the Phoenicians traded along the coast, a town called Ossonoba stood here — the most important urban centre and port of southern Portugal, shipping farm produce, fish and minerals. It passed to the Romans, the Byzantines and the Visigoths, and from the 3rd century it was the seat of a bishop. The Moors took it in 713. In the 9th century it briefly became the capital of a small princedom and was ringed with walls, and by the 11th century it was known as Santa Maria Ibn Harun. Crusader fleets sacked it in 1147 and again in 1217, and Afonso III of Portugal captured it in 1249.

Under Portuguese rule its sheltered port and salt pans made it prosperous, and its Jewish community grew important: in 1487 Samuel Gacon printed a Pentateuch in Hebrew here, the first book printed in Portugal. The Jews were expelled under Manuel I in 1496, and a convent was built on the site of their quarter. Faro became a city in 1540 and took over the Algarve's bishopric from Silves in 1577. In 1597 English forces under the Earl of Essex sacked and burned it and carried the bishop's library back to England, where it joined the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

The 1755 earthquake damaged the city's churches, convents and walls, but its sandbanks shielded it from the tsunami that wrecked the rest of the coast, and in 1756 Faro replaced Lagos as the Algarve's capital. Its airport, opened in 1965, made it the arrival point for the region's tourism, and the University of Algarve, founded in 1979, has given it a large student population.

Faro is the Algarve's administrative, academic and cultural centre rather than its beach resort, and many visitors see it only on the way from the airport. Those who stay find a quiet walled old town, a downtown of cafés and shops, and a lagoon that shapes the city's life. The Ria Formosa, a natural park since 1987, draws birdwatchers in winter, when flamingos, terns and avocets gather on its mudflats.

The Teatro Lethes, a former Jesuit college that became a theatre in 1845, is the old heart of the city's stage life, and the Centro Ciência Viva do Algarve, opened in 1997, was the first interactive centre in Portugal's national science-centre network. The University of Algarve's students hold their own festival each year, the Semana Académica.

Summer and autumn bring the city's big events: the international motorcycle rally in July, one of the largest in Europe; the Folkfaro folklore festival in August; Festival F, which fills the old town with music in early September; the city holiday on 7 September; and the Feira de Santa Iria, a fair dating back to the 16th century, in October. Football belongs to SC Farense, founded in 1910, who play at the Estádio de São Luís; the much larger Estádio Algarve between Faro and Loulé was built for Euro 2004.

The city proper had about 46,000 people at the 2021 census, the largest urban population in the Algarve, and the municipality is the region's second most populous after Loulé. Together with neighbouring Olhão and Loulé, which share roads and commuter links, it forms an urban area of nearly 200,000 people. The municipality is divided into five parishes, from the city itself to Estoi, Conceição, Montenegro and Santa Bárbara de Nexe in the hills.

As the capital of the district, Faro lives on government, the university and services as much as on tourism. Its airport handled more than 10 million passengers in 2025. The Ria Formosa supplies shellfish such as clams, cockles and oysters. A bus rapid transit line, the Algarve Metrobus, is planned to link Faro, Olhão and Loulé with the airport and the university's campuses.

Daily life is that of a small Portuguese city with a large student body, centred on the cafés and pedestrian shopping streets of the Baixa and the gardens by the marina. In summer residents head for Praia de Faro and the islands by bridge and boat.

Faro's cooking draws on the lagoon and the sea. Typical local dishes include horse mackerel, anchovies and sardines prepared alimados — marinated — clams and cockles served plain, arroz de lingueirão (rice with razor clams), cataplanas, caldeiradas and massinhas com peixe, fish cooked with small pasta. The cataplana is named after the hinged copper pan, shaped like two clamshells, in which it is steamed; clams, prawns and pork are the favourite fillings. Caldeirada is a fishermen's stew of mixed fish and potatoes that varies with the catch.

The Ria Formosa is the source of much of this: its clams, cockles and oysters come from the lagoon, and Culatra's fishing village has cafés and restaurants of its own. The municipal market sells fish, fruit, vegetables and regional produce, and the downtown streets hold most of the city's restaurants and tascas.

Faro's desserts are mostly made with almonds, figs and carob, and the regional spirit, medronho, is distilled from the fruit of the strawberry tree in the hills. Cafés across the city serve them alongside coffee through the day.