Faro, Portugal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faro Municipal coat of arms
Location
- Country	Portugal
- Region	Algarve
- Subregion	Algarve
- District or A.R.	Faro
Mayor	José Apolinário
- Party	PS
Area	201.6 km²
Population
- Total	58,305
- Density	289/km²
No. of parishes	6
Coordinates	37º02'N 7º55'W
Municipal holiday	September 7
Website: http://www.cm-faro.pt

Faro (pron. IPA ['faɾu]) is a city and municipality in southern Portugal. It is the seat of the district of Faro and capital of the Algarve region. The Algarve and Faro district cover the same territory.

Contents 1 History 2 Facilities 3 Nature 4 Climate and tourism 5 Events 6 Parishes 7 Town twinning 8 External links

[edit] History

The Ria Formosa lagoon attracted human occupants from the Palaeolithic age until the end of pre-history. During that time a settlement grew up – Ossonoba – which was an important town during the period of Roman occupation and, according to historians, the forerunner of present-day Faro. From the 3rd century onwards and during the Visigothic period it was the site of an Episcopal see. With the advent of Moorish rule in the 8th century Ossonoba retained its status as the most important town in the southwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula. In the 9th century it became the capital of a shortlived princedom and was fortified with a ring of defensive walls. At this time the name Santa Maria began to be used instead of Ossonoba. Later on the town was known as Harune, whence its current name, Faro. After the Moorish period, the Moors were defeated by the forces of the Portuguese King Afonso III during the 13th century. With the decline of the importance of the city of Silves, Faro took over the role of administration of the Algarve area.

The Earl of Essex sacked the town in 1596 and seized the library of the Bishop of Faro. These books were later donated to the University of Oxford, becoming part of the Bodleian Library.

During the 500 years of Moorish occupation there were some Jewish inhabitants in Faro who were busily writing copies of the Old Testament.

[edit] Facilities

The city has a public university (the University of the Algarve), an international airport (Faro airport), a seaport, a marina, a railroad station and complete interregional bus services.

Its 30,000-seater stadium called Estádio Algarve, shared by the neighboring cities of Faro and Loulé, and was one of the sites of Euro 2004. It currently stands empty, but locals hope that a Team will finally give use to the Stadium. The actual relevance of Louletano and Sporting Clube Farense, the locals teams, are not enough to use such a big stadium, instead they use the smaller municipal stadiums. The Stadium has been used to concerts, festival and special games, like the ones organized by Luís Figo, for charity issues.

[edit] Nature

Faro is the home of the Ria Formosa lagoon, a nature reserve of over 170 square kilometres and a stopping place for hundreds of different birds during the spring and autumn migratory periods. The beach is almost seven kilometres from the city, and is a long sandy spit reached by crossing a bridge.

[edit] Climate and tourism

Although most people think that the Algarve is a sunny place all year round, it has four well-defined seasons in terms of temperature and rainfall. However, the region is in general the warmest region of Mainland Portugal. The lowest temperature in winter never goes below 0ºC, and the hottest days in summer seldom reach 40ºC. The warm climate, the beaches and the sunny weather, makes Faro district a very popular summer resort. Roughly 5 million tourists per year, including domestic tourists from Portugal and from other European origins, like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia, Netherlands and Germany, flow into the Algarve from May to September.

Faro airport is not too far away from the city itself. In recent years the numbers of visitors travelling through the airport has increased as more and more low-cost airlines fight to offer cheap flights to the Algarve. The transport facilities to and from Faro airport reach easily Faro's downtown, and include a wide availability of taxicabs and the city bus line which has scheduled departure times of regular bus service at the airport's bus stop.

[edit] Events

The motorcycling concentration of Faro is a famous festival, renowned in Europe.

The city holiday is on 7 September.

The students festival (Semana Académica da Universidade do Algarve), organized every year by students of the University of the Algarve, is also a great event in Faro.

[edit] Parishes

• Conceição
• Estoi
• Montenegro
• Santa Bárbara de Nexe
• São Pedro
• Sé

[edit] Town twinning

• Tangier, Morocco (since 1954)
• Málaga,  Spain
• Huelva,  Spain

[edit] External links

• Municipality official website
• University of Algarve (Faro)
• Faro Airport
• Photographs of Faro
• Motorcycling Concentration Faro 2005 (1)