Parish Council of Portimão

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Portimão was a prehistoric settlement, a Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian trading post. With the Romans it became well known for its excellent port. Simultaneously with Silves and Alvor, Portimão was a small fishing center that 1290 the Knights of the Order of Santiago conquered from the Muslims. In 1453 it was elevated to town. With the construction of the forts of S. João, in Ferragudo and Santa Catarina, in Praia da Rocha, the village of Portimão started to be defended from constant attacks by pirates and privateers. old town, becoming one of the main fishing ports in Portugal. In 1924 it became a city. A close relationship is established between fishing and the port of Portimão, which is maintained today. It is not uncommon for tourists to look for the unique taste of grilled sardines eaten on the old Portimão pier, where they only eat them washed in sea water and roasted on a charcoal grill with a little salt. At the end of the century, many bathers were staying in the houses and farms that surrounded the coast, enjoying the great attraction of Praia da Rocha or Praia de Santa Catarina. In 1894, Julião Lourenço Pinto made one of the first descriptions of "the unique and picturesque beach, as there is certainly no other in the country with equivalent charms and in such advantageous hydrographic conditions". In 1910, on the 1st of August, the Praia da Rocha Casino opens, a symptom of the growing influx of people to this resort, marking a phase of continuous improvement that will attract here the aristocracy of the south of the country and of Andalusia. The place is thus populated with houses and chalets where many tourists are accommodated. "The first hotel to be built, the Hotel Viola from the first decade of the 20th century, is not sufficient for all demand and in 1932 it was expanded. In 1936 the Hotel Bela-Vista was built." "When talking about Portimão, one cannot fail to mention one of its most illustrious children. Manuel Teixeira Gomes was born here, on May 27, 1860. Traveller, diplomat, politician and humanist intellectual, he has a major literary work in which his native region is always present, until his death in Algerian exile, in October 1941. Portimão, in particular, never ceased to be part of Manuel Teixeira Gomes' universe when he traveled across Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean coast, when, in London or Lisbon, he held diplomatic and political positions. This Algarve, still unknown to some of our people, wrote magnificent pages about the Algarve, considering it: "the most lovely and gentle landscape that perhaps existed in the world". The land where he was born is presented to us as a script full of descriptive visualization from Ponte do Alvor to Ponte da Piedade - Portimão, Ferragudo, Arade, the Serra. This pictorial writing fascinates and dazzles us. Manuel Teixeira Gomes, was a devotee of Greek culture for whom the Beauty and Aesthetics are fundamental values ​​for human experience. His travels were like navigations through the art world, pausing for a long time in museums and delighting in the repeated contemplation of paintings and sculptures. As a diplomat and President of the Republic that he was, he sought more to render a service than to seek honors or profits, thus sacrificing well-being, or depriving himself of the tenderness of his children and the woman he loved. It is with verticality that he resigns from the Presidency of the Republic and takes refuge in a self-imposed exile, where he felt like a "released prisoner, after serving a long and rigorous sentence", as he so well confessed to Columbano, his great friend and confidant. . Almost blind, far from his homeland, he continued to see her and describe her with the inner gaze of someone who knew and loved her so well."