Lagos

Lagos has more than 2,000 years of history as a port. A Celtic settlement gave it the name Lacobriga, and the Carthaginians and then the Romans used its harbour; the rebel Roman general Sertorius defeated a Roman army nearby, probably at Monte Molião. Visigoths and Byzantines followed, and in the 8th century the Moors renamed it Zawaia. Afonso III captured it in 1241, and finally in 1249.

In 1415 John I assembled his fleet in the harbour before taking Ceuta, and in the 15th century Lagos became the centre of Portuguese exploration. Henry the Navigator lived here much of the time and sent caravels down the African coast; Gil Eanes of Lagos rounded Cape Bojador in 1434. In 1444 the town held the first slave market in Europe of the modern era, and enslaved Africans were dispersed from here across the continent, with Henry taking a fifth of every sale. As Lisbon grew, trade moved there.

King Sebastian raised Lagos to a city in 1573 and sailed from it in 1578 on his disastrous expedition to Morocco. From 1576 the city was capital of the Algarve. It saw off Francis Drake in the late 1580s, gained the fort of Ponta da Bandeira late in the 17th century, and gave its name to two naval battles offshore, in 1693 and 1759. The earthquake and tsunami of 1755 destroyed much of the town and ended its time as capital. Fishing kept it going until the 1960s, when tourism, drawn by the beaches and the golden cliffs, became the main industry.

Lagos is proud of its place in the Age of Discovery. A monument to the town's navigators, unveiled in 1997, stands on the riverside Avenida dos Descobrimentos near the market, and a statue honours the navigator Gil Eanes. The town also faces the darker side of that history: the Mercado de Escravos, on the site of the 1444 slave market, has been a museum of slavery since 2016.

The calendar mixes old and new. The Feira Concurso Arte Doce on the last weekend of July celebrates the Algarve's traditional sweets, and Banho 29, on 29 August, re-enacts old bathing customs on the Cais da Solaria. A small portable bullring operates only in summer. Ceramics and cork goods fill the shops of the old town.

Tourism has made Lagos one of the most international places in Portugal. The old town's bars cater to young backpackers from across Europe, English is common, and the villages to the west have attracted many retired residents from Britain and Germany. In 2012 the town won a QualityCoast Gold Award for its efforts to become a sustainable tourism destination.

The municipality had 33,494 people at the 2021 census and an estimated 35,200 at the end of 2024; about 23,600 live in the city parish itself. The population rises sharply in summer. The coastal strip is densely settled and lives from tourism and services, while the inland region is thinly populated and depends largely on farming and forestry.

Fishing was for centuries the town's main livelihood, and it survives, though without its old importance; since the 1960s tourism has been the main economic activity. That makes work strongly seasonal: the town is crowded and lively from June to September and much quieter in winter.

Daily life moves between the old town, the riverside market and the beaches. The railway and bus station connect residents with Portimão, Faro and Lisbon, and the A22 motorway links the town to the rest of the Algarve. Lagos station is the western terminus of the Algarve line, which runs east via Faro and Tavira to Vila Real de Santo António.

Lagos eats from the sea. The market hall on Avenida dos Descobrimentos sells the morning's fish and seafood, and sardines are grilled across the Algarve, with local people sometimes cooking them on small barbecues outside their doors. Cataplana, a typical Algarve dish of seafood or pork cooked in, and named after, a hinged copper pan, is popular across the region. Piri-piri chicken, grilled with a hot chilli sauce, is another regional favourite, and fried squid, octopus rice and grilled sardines are on many local menus.

Sweets are made from almonds, figs, carob and eggs. Dom Rodrigos are egg threads with almond wrapped in coloured foil, morgados are almond cakes filled with egg sweets, and marzipan is another regional speciality. The Feira Concurso Arte Doce each July shows them off.

The local spirit is medronho, a strong brandy distilled from the fruit of the strawberry tree, and almond liqueur is drunk after meals. Lagos is one of the Algarve's four wine appellations, alongside Portimão, Lagoa and Tavira.