Red sandstone Moorish castle above the orange groves of the Algarve
Silves is the medieval heart of the Algarve — a small inland town dominated by the finest Moorish castle in Portugal, built from distinctive red sandstone that glows orange in late afternoon light. For 500 years before the Portuguese reconquest it was the capital of the Moorish province of al-Gharb (from which 'Algarve' derives), a city of 30,000 with a mosque, royal palace, and trading connections to North Africa. The surrounding countryside is covered in orange and carob orchards; the town's Medieval Fair in August is one of the best in Portugal.
Silves (Xelb to its Arab rulers) was the capital of Moorish al-Gharb from the 8th century and one of the most prosperous cities in the Iberian Peninsula — 10th-century travellers described a cultured city with marble baths, street lighting, and a population larger than Lisbon. The Crusaders besieged and sacked it in 1189, but the Moors retook it within two years; the Portuguese finally conquered it for good in 1249. The subsequent decline was dramatic — the silting of the Rio Arade cut off sea access, the population collapsed to a few thousand, and Faro replaced it as the Algarve's capital. W…