The town had it’s heyday in Moorish times when it was the capital of the Algarve. The castle at the top of the hill is a monument to Islamic settlement till the 13th century.

In August this abundant heritage is honoured with a fair that has markets, jousting, music, dancing and historical re-enactments.

Silves was in the hands of the Moors for practically 500 years, and the long lasting monument from this period is the castle. This structure hasn’t been changed much considering that the days of the Almohad Caliphate in the 12th and 13th centuries.

An 11th-century Moorish palace was likewise excavated within the walls, and exciting pieces like multi-foil windows have actually been exposed. There’s a lot taking place underground at the castle’s yard, where you can go into a 10-metre-high cistern and peer down a well that descends 60 metres into the earth. The cathedral was constructed as soon as Silves was won back from the Moors in the 13th century, and may even have actually been erected where the old mosque utilized to stand.

Extra design was added later on, but the cathedral’s fascination depends on the downplayed magnificence of the columns and arches in the nave, the intense red sandstone archivolts in the portal and the traceried arch between the chancel from the transept. Museu Municipal de Arqueologia de Silves The town’s outstanding archaeology museum is built around a cistern from the days of the Almohad Caliphate in the 12th century.

Further excavations around the town have uncovered discovers dating back to the Neolithic Duration and including the Copper and Bronze Age, Roman times, the Visigoths and the Moors. Moorish artefacts make up the majority of the museum’s collection, however make time for the Iron Age funerary stones, with composed engravings that are still a secret to historians.