The world is covered with breathtaking and brilliantly beautiful places that people should know not only their names and their locations on maps but also several facts about their history and culture.
Faro is such a place. It is a spectacular city in Portugal, but unfortunately, not enough tourists seem to know about its existence.
In this article, you will learn about this underrated city and you might even decide to travel there and discover its secret.
Table of Contents
Fact 1: The southernmost city in Portugal
One of the first things you need to know about a place is where it is. Faro is the southernmost city in Portugal. It is the capital of the Faro District. The Faro District is also the Algarve region. The Algarve region consists of 16 municipalities, and Faro is also the capital.
You can easily arrive in Faro by landing at the Algarve airport, hiring a car with Enjoy Travel and exploring the city and the whole area. Don’t forget to pack your swimsuit and your sunscreen because you must go for a swim on its beautiful beaches.
Fact 2: English is widely spoken there
This fact applies to the whole of Portugal. Let’s take it from the top. Portuguese is the official language of the country.
The fact that it is a popular European destination has led locals to learn English and speak the language fluently so that they can communicate with tourists and help their economy flourish.
Not to mention there are many cases of tourists who have bought property in Portugal because they have fallen in love with it.
Fact 3: The region was called Ossonoba
Of course, Faro wasn’t always the way it is today. The ancient town was called Ossonoba, and it was close to the Ria Formosa lagoon.
Similar to Faro today, Ossonoba was a popular place as many people settled there and commerce was the core of the town’s economy thanks to its port. It retained its high status even during and after the Moorish rule. A couple of centuries later, instead of Ossonoba, it was called Santa Maria or Santa Maria Ibn Harun.
Fact 4: Faro wasn’t always the most important city in the Algarve region
Faro may be the capital of the Algarve now, but in antiquity, it wasn’t as powerful. The city of Silves and the municipality of the same name were the centre for many centuries.
The river Arade, which passes through areas inland and connects them with the ocean, definitely helped with the prosperity of the area. Faro became the urban centre of the Algarve in 1249 when the Portuguese King Afonso III defeated the Moors.
Fact 5: The destructive earthquake of 1755
The administrative capital of the Algarve used to be Lagos, another great coastal city in the south of Portugal. The earthquake of 1755 caused major damage to all the cities in the Algarve area, including Faro.
The fact that the damages in Faro were less compared to the ones in Lagos led to the change of capital from Lagos to Faro.
*This is a collaborative post
