Silves is a city and municipality in the PortugueseAlgarve of southern Portugal. The urbanized area includes approximately 11,000 inhabitants. Silves is the former capital of the Kingdom of the Algarve and is of great historical importance.
Sights
Parts of the Almohad town wall, constructed from poured concrete, have been preserved, as well as the Almedina-gate (Porta de Loulé). Other sights include the Santa Misericórdia Church with a fine door in Manueline style (the main body of the church was built in 1727-28); a museum for cork and the production of bottle corks in a defunct factory which is now also a centre for cultural events called „Fábrica do Inglês (The Englishman’s Factory); and the municipal museum (Museu Municipal de Arqueologia) with findings from the palaeolithic onwards.
The town is situated on a hill above the Arade River. Silves Castle is located on the top of the hill. It occupies ca. 12,000 m².
Archaeological excavations have shown that the oldest buildings date back to the 8th century, the stratigraphy is almost 6 m deep and contains Iron Age remains as well. The walls are made of red sandstone (grés de Silves) with a pisé-core and were heavily restored in the 1940s. Protruding towers of the albarra-type protect the Northern slope. After the Christian conquest, the castle served as the seat of the alcaide-mor (provincial governor) until the middle of the 16th century; afterwards the towers were used as a prison.
Geography
The municipality is crossed by the Arade River, which was navigable in historical times and was key to the prosperity of the city of Silves. The waters of the river form the reservoirs of Arade and Funcho. The landscape of the municipality is generally hilly. To the south the municipality borders the Atlantic Ocean.
Silves is built on top of one of the largest underground aquifers in the south of Portugal, The Querença-Silves Aquifer, and has many orange groves, a fruit introduced by the Moors.
Human geography
Administratively, the municipality is divided into 6 civil parishes (freguesias):
Education
Besides the local state-run secondary school, Deutsche Schule Algarve, a German international school, is also in the city, as well as a branch of the Instituto Piaget, an higher education institution.
