Silves, Former Capital of the Algarve

Once a Centre of Government and Church, now a Pleasant Backwater

Silves, an Introduction

Portugal

The old city of Silves sits on a hill above the Rio Arade, 10km inland from the Algarve coast. It was once of great importance, the capital of the Algarve and seat of the bishop, but it was long ago overtaken by Faro as a religious and administrative centre, Portimão as a commercial centre, and in the last few decades by a host of coastal settlements that have burgeoned into sizeable towns as the tide of tourism has swept the coast.

The Algarve, Portugal's southernmost region, with Silves ringed in red

With 11,000 inhabitants Silves is now something of a backwater, but visitors washed here by tourististic tidal eddies find a city of quiet charm and well-preserved history.

Arriving from the south gives an impressive view of the Moorish Castle and Gothic Cathedral, side by side above the town which tumbles down the hillside to the river. The road offers no oportunity to stop and a drive-by snapping loses the river valley and much of the height, but it gives an idea.

Approaching Silves

We have visited Silves several times over the years, crossing the modern bridge over the Arade into the town. The medieval bridge 100m downstream is now pedestrian only.

Medieval bridge over the Arade, Silves

Then it should be a matter of taking any uphill road…

Traditional houses painted in traditional colours below the castle, Silves

… but the narrow streets and one-way system usually lead us round the castle and we park in one of the residential streets climbing the northern flank of the hill.

One of the residential streets climbing the northern flank of the hill, Silves

Silves Castle

Whatever fortifications the Visigoths had were overrun by the Moors around 716 and the city known by the Romans as Cilpes became the Moorish Şilb. I had always lazily assumed that Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula was monolithic and unchanging, but of course it is much more complicated (who’d have guessed it?). Şilb was ruled by the Damascus based Umayyad Caliphate (716-756) The Emirate (later Caliphate) of Córdoba (756-1030), the Almoravid Empire (1030-1147) and the Almohad Empire (1147-1242).

The castle’s basic structure dates from the Córdoba period, most of the refinements from the Almohad days.

The massive castle walls, Silves

From 1027 to 1063, as the Córboda Caliphate disintegrated and before the Almoravids had full control, Şilb became the capital of its own Taifa, a petty kingdom ruling the western Algarve.

On the castle walls, Silves

The castle was attacked and taken several times during the Reconquista. In 1160 Ferdinand I of León and Castile sacked the city but it was quickly taken back by the Moors.

The interior of Silves Castle

The Cisterna Grande was probably built in response to this incident. A remarkable feat of Almohad engineering, it could supply water for 12,000 people and remained in use until the 1920s. It is also known as the Cisterna da Moura Encantada (Cistern of the Enchanted Moorish Girl). According to legend an enchanted Moorish princess appears in the cistern at midnight on the festival of St John in a silver boat with golden oars looking for the prince who can break the spell. That would be midnight on the 23rd of June, should you be a relevant prince.

The roof of the Cisterna Grande, Silves Castle

The interior of the cistern is now an exhibition space.

Inisde the Cisterna Grande - exhibition on the reintroduction of the Iberian Lynx into the Algarve

In 1189 King Sancho I of Portugal took the castle after a long siege and got a statue for his pains. As many as 30,000 took refuge in the castle - too many for even the Cisterna Grande – and as water supplies dwindled the defenders negotiated. Sancho agreed all would be spared provided he got his castle. Unfortunately, a large part of his army were north European crusaders, co-opted by the promise of booty, and making contradictory promises to two different groups means one will be disappointed. The Crusaders knew what they were due, good Christians as they were, and a day of murder, rape and looting ensued.

A more than life-size Sancho I guards the entrance to Silves Castle. His is a flawed hero, but Lynne seemed to like him.

It was all to no avail. Şilb was retaken by the Moors in 1191.

The Arade estuary is deep enough for cruise ships to dock at Portimão, but immediately north of the city the modern river becomes a series of tidal lagoons, the haunt of storks, egrets and occasionally flamingos. In medieval times it was navigable as far as Silves and the port of Şilb linked the interior of Portugal to the outside world. With fifty years of stability, this link brought prosperity to such an extent that Şilb became known as the Baghdad of the west (a compliment in those days!).

The castle was strengthened, and also made more liveable. The Balcony of the Poets was built and a small part has been reconstructed showing how it might have looked.

A reconstructed part of the Balcony of the Poets, Silves Castle

After the false starts in 1160 and 1189 the Reconquista finally came to Şilb in 1249 when the castle was taken for Afonso III, grandson of Sancho I. Later that year Faro fell, the Reconquista was over and Afonso styled himself King of Portugal and the Algarves (why Algarves, there is only one of them?).

In Spain, where the Emirate of Granada continued until 1492, the Reconquista took longer - and is still controversial after the concept was hijacked by the Franco regime and later Spanish Nationalists. In Portugal it is just a bit of history.

The view from a castle is usually as good a reason for visiting as the castle itself. Silves sits at the northern edge of the coastal plain surrounded by orange groves (a fruit introduced by the Moors) but these peter out as the land rises. Two dams in the hills provide water for irrigation. Some claim they are responsible for the low water levels in the river, and maybe they are but the Arade looks to my inexpert eye like a river than can silt up with very little human assistance.

Looking north from Silves Castle

You can also look down on the town – I always enjoy a roofscape - ….

The roofs of Silves

….and at the nearby Cathedral.

Silves Cathedral from the castle

Silves Cathedral

When we first visited, in 1982, the Carnation Revolution was only 8 years old and although Portugal had stabilized into the liberal democracy it is today, signs of earlier unrest were still abundant. Outlines of Lenin, Mao and Che Guevara were stencilled onto any available surface and Morte aos Padres (Death to the Priests) was daubed on the Cathedral wall. I would deplore the killing of priests (or anyone else) but I rather admired the vigour of the political discourse.

The cathedral occupies the site of a former Almohad mosque. Building started in the mid-13th century (probably) and took a long time (definitely). The 1352 earthquake did not help, but that is hardly an excuse for not finishing until the early 16th century – by comparison Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (started 1882, projected completion date 2032) has been thrown together.

The Gothic façade is plain and the doorway largely devoid of decoration.

Silves Cathedral door

Directly opposite - behind the photographer’s back - is the portal of the Igreja da Misericórdia, considered among the finest surviving Manueline doors in the Algarve.

Manueline portal, Igreja da Misericordia, Silves

Manueline was a peculiarly Portuguese style in vogue during the reign of King Manuel I (1495-1521). It features multiple columns and pillars, sometimes twisted like rope, and motifs inspired by the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Cabral. Visitors enter the Cathedral through its Manueline door, which is round the side.

Manueline doorway, Silves Cathedral

The church, in the shape of a Latin cross, has a three-aisled nave. There is little decoration, but the contrast between whitewashed walls and the red sandstone pillars is effective. Part of the nave collapsed in the Great Earthquake of 1755 and repair work resulted in a rococo make-over in the tastes of the time. 20th century restoration returned it to a more medieval look.

Silves was originally the seat of the Bishop of the Algarve but economically the 15th and 16th centuries were difficult in Silves and successive bishops spent more and more time in Faro. In 1577 the move became permanent though Silves remains a co-cathedral in what is now the Diocese of Faro.

Inside Silves Cathedral

The cathedral contains the tombs of a number of notable former citizens including Dom Fernando Coutinho, bishop of Silves 1502-38. He was part of the Portuguese negotiating team at the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) when Spain and Portugal carved up ownership of all the world’s newly discovered lands without reference to any other European powers (never mind the people who lived there.)

The tomb of Dom Fernando Coutinho, Silves Cathedral

Silves Archeological Museum

We only discovered the museum this year, though it has been open since 1990.

The museum was constructed around an Almohad (12th/13th Century) well discovered during archeological investigations in the 1980s.

Almohad Well, Silves Museum

Silves sits on of the sizable Querença-Silves Aquifer, so although the well was dug on the top of a hill, they were sure to strike water if they kept digging. The well is 18m deep and 4m wide with a spiral staircase winding around it. The staircase is roped off, but a virtual descent is possible by the short film (available in Portuguese and English) at the wellhead.

Almohad Well, Silves Museum

Using the well as a centre-piece, finds from Silves and the surrounding countryside are laid out in chronological order telling the story of Silves from its earliest inhabitants….

The Algarve's earliest inhabitants liked a monolith!

….through the Moorish period - the largest group of finds come from Silves’ Almohad golden age brought to an abrupt end by the Reconquista in 1249 -…

Silves is 10km from the sea on a river that is no longer navigable - this is a reminder that it used to be a port
Silves Museum

…and up to the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the 16th century pottery looks exactly like the pottery produced today throughout the Algarve.

16th Century pottery, Silves Museum.
The design on the plate would not look out of place in any modern Algarve pottery

The museum is well laid out, the lighting is excellent and the comprehensive captions are in Portuguese and English – it is one of the best museums of its type we have encountered.

That completes the major sites of Silves but there are more, smaller places of interest that can be sought out, and it is a pleasant place just to wander around. History may have manoeuvred Silves into a backwater, but it is a backwater well worth investigating.

Algarve Posts

The Algarve: Delights and Depredations(2010)
Mexilhoeira Grande and a Long Lost Cousin (2013)
The West Coast (2013)
Lagos (2014)
Castro Marim and Vila Real do Santo António (2015)
The Boxes of Carvoeiro (2016)
Mertola and Alcoutim: Strongholds by the Guadiana River (2017) - Also under Alentejo
Silves, Former Capital of the Algarve (2018)
Drinking the Algarve (2022)
Eating the Algarve (2024)