Ollhão

Olhão

One of the Algarve´s main fishing ports, Olhão (read as "olhaun") has square whitewashed houses with flat roof terraces and chimneys that are evocative of Moorish architecture. Behind the parish church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, from the 17th century, the chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Aflitos is where the wives of fishermen gather to pray for their safety when the weather is stormy. But the town´s main attraction is its market, one of the most animated and picturesqueof the Algarve, with an enormous variety of seafood but also local farmers selling such products as fruit, honey and live chickens. Nearby, the village of Fuzeta is like Olhão on a small scale and is well appreciated by windsurfers.

A few kilometres inland, Moncarapacho is proud of its church of Santo Cristo, with a beautiful doorway and painted arches. In the region, the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa is considered the most important sanctuary of wildlife in the Algarve. Its lagoons, marshes, channels and islets are abundant in shellfish such as cockles, clams and oysters and shelter, amongst other species, a variety of birds such as the cattle egret, the white stork, the purple gallinule, the red-crested pochard, etc. This natural reserve stretches along 60 kilometres (40 miles) and its rich ecosystem is ideal for the development of varied fauna and flora.

The town of Olhão is essentially and historically linked to the local fishing industry and only grew into existence in the 17th Century. It has about 30,000 inhabitants and was raised to the status of a town in 1808 after 17 local fishermen successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean without charts in their small fishing boat "Bom Sucesso". Their purpose was to announce to the exiled King of Portugal, Dom João IV, that the French invading armies had been defeated and had returned to France leaving Portugal free for the King to return. It was in this town in 1882 that the first canning factory for tuna and sardines was established. Very soon canning it became the leading industry of the Algarve.

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