Andalucia Life Visits the Western Algarve

Apart from being a splendid place to be in its own right, southern Andalucia is a great base from which to visit other interesting places. With a dual carriageway all the way and no Customs control it is an easy five hour drive to Lagos on the Algarve, probably the second favourite holiday destination on the Iberian peninsula after the Costa del Sol. Although in a different country the southern coast of Portugal has more in common with Andalucia than the rest of Portugal itself.

The Carthaginians extended their trading interests from Cadiz to Lagos that was then called by its Celtic inhabitants, Lacobriga. The same Celts were recruited by Hannibal to help fight the Romans during the second Punic War. As with Andalucia the southern Portuguese coast was occupied by the Romans, albeit a little later than Andalucia because the Lusitanians gave the Romans more grief. By the 1st Century AD the area was settled enough to be Romanised and there are plenty of Roman towns and remains to look at in the area.

The Romans left and the Visigoths arrived, closely followed by the Moors who called the coastal region al-Ghard, hence the present day Algarve. They were driven out in the 13th Century by King Alfonso III who gave himself the title of King of Portugal and the Algarve, stressing the fact that the Algarve was considered a separate country. Lagos (pronounced Lagosh) in fact became independent during King Pedro I’s rule in 1361. It was in Lagos that King Joao assembled his fleet before conquering Ceuta in 1415, the first step towards Portugal’s ‘Age of Discovery’. Lagos in Nigeria was named after the Portuguese port.

In 1444 the first slave market in Europe opened in Lagos and its arcades survive on the waterfront. Henry the Navigator, as king, took a fifth of all revenues from the slaves and anything else sold as a result of the voyages of discovery. He kept a favourite residence at Lagos to keep an eye on his investments. In the port there is a replica of the caravels that made these voyages, the Boa Esperanca. The Portuguese caravel had a fore and aft rig, a legacy of the Moors, which allowed them to sail a few degrees into the wind. They had enormous advantages over the northern European ships of the time that were square rigged and could only sail down or across the wind. These boats were not built for comfort. The only people on board who had a roof over their heads were the Captain and the Navigator, and then only because he had to keep his charts dry. Everybody else lived on deck rain or shine.

In 1578 King Dom Sebastiao set off from Lagos with his troops and most of the Portuguese nobility on an ill-fated crusade against the kingdom of Fez. He managed to get the majority of the nobility and himself killed at the battle of Alcacer Quibir in Morocco. This left a power vacuum in Portugal that was filled for the next sixty years by Spain. Dom Sebastiao however became something of a hero amongst the aggressively devout and, four hundred years after his defeat, a statue of him was erected in a square at Lagos. It portrays him as the muppet he possibly was.

A few kilometres down the coast are two headlands, the first, Sagres, is the location of a fortress built by Henry to protect the small harbour there and the approaches to Lagos. It is here that fables have it that Henry established a school of navigation. Some stories even have Vasco de Gama and Magellan attending classes. Sadly, because it makes a fine story, that is all it is. There is no physical or written evidence of a school of navigation. Stood on the fortress looking out to sea the next piece of land is America. It is easy to imagine how the fable was inspired. After Portugal came under Spanish rule Francis Drake tried to sack Lagos but was repulsed so he took it out on Sagres instead.

A couple of kilometres away is Cape St. Vincent. This really is the end of the world. Or at least the Romans thought so. Every day they observed the sun sinking, hissing and spluttering, into the sea behind the Cape. It is unclear whether they believed the sun that came up behind them every morning was new or just well washed. If you are lucky you will be there on a day when the Atlantic rollers smash into the cliff below the lighthouse on the Cape. There are photographs at stalls nearby of the resulting spray engulfing the lighthouse.

Although much of the old town of Lagos had to be rebuilt after the earthquake and resulting tsunami in 1755 it is still well worth exploring. The partly rebuilt city walls are as imposing now as they were then as is the 17th Century Governors Palace. Dating from the same period and built to defend against such attacks as Drake’s and from pirates and corsairs is the Forte da Ponta da Bandeira that guards the entrance to the harbour. You gain access via a small drawbridge. Inside there are displays of the voyages of discovery with navigational instruments and models of the caravels.

Today Lagos is a thriving fishing and tourist town and, despite the determined efforts of the touts trying to entice you onto boat trips, it has a relaxed atmosphere, well worth a visit.