-
hotels faro
Fantastic choice of Faro Hotels at great prices. ABTA/ATOL
alpharooms.com/faro -
20 Hotels in Faro (PT)
Book your hotel in Faro online. Save up to 50% on your reservation.
www.booking.com/Faro
History of Faro, Portugal
Humans first settled the area around Faro during the Paleolithic age, due to the favorable conditions on the Ria Formosa lagoon. It was the site of a trading post for both the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and developed into a major port under Roman rule. From the 3rd century it was a Christian center (or “see”) and was controlled by the Visigoths from roughly the 5th century until the 8th, when it came under Moor-ish rule. From Roman times it was called Ossonoba, and it is from the Moors where Faro’s modern name originates. Many place names in the Algarve,
Portugal and Spain have Arabic origins dating from this time, including the Algarve (Al-Gharb) and Faro, which comes from the Arabic “Harun”. Faro revitalized under the Moors 500 year rule, which came to an end in 1272 at the hands of the army of the Portuguese King Afonso III and Faro subsequently gained more regional importance. In 1596 Faro was sacked by English forces led by the Earl of Essex and suffered heavy damage. During Portugal’s Age of Discovery, the mari-time city of Lagos prospered, and was the then-province of the Algarve’s capital and remained so until the year following the devastating earthquake of 1755.
Of the region, only Faro remained relatively unscathed by the quake and subsequent tsunami, due to the protection of the Ria Formosa lagoon. Since the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, Faro has been the center of administration in the Algarve. Current history has seen the opening up of the Algarve to large amounts of tourism from the U.K., Germany, France and Scan-dinavia, due to the construction of Faro Airport in the 1960s. This development has continued until pre-sent times, with concentration on golf and up market resorts in recent years.
