Visiting Albufeira!
Places in Albufeira that keeps in the mind of those who visit it!

   Progress has turned Albufeira into a city with tourism and leisure as its vocation. But streets in the old Cerro da Vila area still retain the picturesque appeal of whitewashed houses and steeply climbing narrow streets. There is a Moorish arch on Travessa da Igreja velha, where there stood first a mosque and later the town's first church.On the beach, the bright colours of the fishing boats contrast with the blue of the sea. Oblivious to the holidaymakers sunbathing nearby, the fishermen continue with the task of readying their nets, much as they have done for thousands of years.

   This is a footpath along the edge of the sea which offers magnificent views over the city; the beaches and the rock formations which are part of the charm of Albufeira, It leads to the pretty cane at Xorino, where according to local tradition the Moors took refuge when the town was reconquered by the Christians in the 13th century.

   This structure dates from the beginning of the 18th century and is built in the popular manner. Its main doorway bears baroque ornamentation and it has a side doorway in the Manueline style (16th century). It has a decorated cupola and the retable of the high altar has coloured carving and statues from the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a statue of Nossa Senhora da Piedade (Our Lady of Piety) (possibly from the 16th century) which has been damaged.

   Standing on the site of a former Moorish mosque, the building was restored in 1499 as a Misericórdia (Mercy) Chapel.Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755, it nevertheless retains some of its earlier gothic (15th century) features, namely the doorway, the triumphal arch and the apse. It has a carved retable on the high altar with statues from the 17th/18th centuries. Nearby stands the gothic doorway of the old hostelry.