10 bedrooms Villa in Albufeira, Portugal No. 124547

Countryside located at the gates of the city, extremely quiet, it also benefits from the country and maritime scents brought by the southerly winds from the sea. Faro International Airport is about 30 minutes away, through good and safe roads. Located about 10 minutes from Vilamoura golf courses and Sheraton Pine Cliffs, overlooking the sea, this unit is in a privileged position for all those who like to enjoy everything the region offers to its tourists, such as: The magnificent beaches, excellent golf courses and tennis centre, hiking, cycling or training for competition, shopping areas, restaurants and nightlife, safaris to the interior of the Algarve, discovering all the rich gastronomy of the region and visiting the entire Serra do Algarve. The origins of Albufeira are unknown, but everything suggests that the region was already populated in prehistoric times and that the place where the city stands today would have been, some centuries before our era, an important settlement with its seaport. The primitive settlement was occupied by the Romans who named it Baltum. They introduced a centralized administrative organization and developed an intense agricultural and commercial activity. They built aqueducts, roads and bridges of which vestiges still exist today. The place-name Albufeira comes from the Arabic name ’Al-buhera’ which means ’castle of the sea’, a reason that may be linked to the proximity of the ocean and/or the lagoon that formed in the lower part of the town. The Arabs built solid defensive fortifications, making it almost impregnable, which to some extent was not unfounded, because Albufeira was one of the squares that the Arabs kept in their power for the longest time. The development of agriculture was remarkable and there was the introduction of new techniques and new cultures. The Arabs already used plows and fertilizers, as well as water-wheels for raising water in wells. They introduced new irrigation systems in the fields, highlighting the dams and levadas, thus transforming uncultivated areas into vegetable gardens and orchards. When D. Afonso III occupied the throne, part of the Algarve had already fallen to the Christians. Templars and Hospitallers, military orders that helped in the Reconquest, frequently raided the lands that were still under Arab rule, but always stopped in front of the strong walls of Albufeira. Only after Faro was taken did the situation in Albufeira become unsustainable. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the square fell to D. Afonso III, who immediately donated it to the Order of Aviz. The Moors were so persecuted that only those who fled and took refuge in a cave, called Cova do Xorino, located under the rocks delimiting the city on the south side, escaped the fury of the victors. In the reign of King Manuel I, the town had already regained its former importance, as this monarch granted it a charter on August 20,1504. Albufeira was among the Algarve cities the most punished by natural cataclysms. But it was the earthquake that caused the most damage. The sea invaded the village with waves that reached 10m in height, destroying almost all the buildings, with only 27 houses left standing and these very ruined. The Igreja Matriz, a former Arab mosque adapted to Christian worship, where the population had taken refuge, asking for mercy, collapsed, causing 227 victims. After this earthquake, the entire Algarve continued to suffer violent shocks until August 20 of the following year, which did not prevent the immediate start of reconstruction work by order of Bishop D. Francisco Gomes de Avelar. In 1833, during the civil war between absolutists and liberals, Albufeira was surrounded and attacked by soldiers from Remexido: an absolutist popular leader who deeply damaged the town and executed a large number of its inhabitants. In the first decades of the 20th century there was a sharp increase in the export of fish and nuts. The village then had five factories employing 700 to 800 people, mainly fishermen’s wives. From 1930 to 1960 there were times of decay, fishing frames were ruined, factories closed, boats disappeared and many (ref NV-V10-01-(PR-355))

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