A huge number of Brits are wedded to their winter in the Algarve area of Portugal (it’s along the southern coastal strip of the country), which is why for many years I have kept away. Their reasons for spending their time there are many - it’s cheap, it’s warm even in winter (a fleece jacket even in December is fine), there are golf courses all over the place, the locals are friendly and don’t regard you as a target when they drive as in Spain.
Eventually we gave in, so for two years we have done Albufeira, which is towards the west. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, and I recommend it, but it’s not exactly cultural, so this year we headed to the east and stayed in Tavira. This is a Roman town, almost on the border with Spain. It has a train station (we never actually saw a train - the drivers had gone on strike) - but there is a bus station in the middle of town, which has an excellent bus and coach service to all parts. It has a Roman bridge over the River Gilao (not actually Roman but still very nice), a castle, and 37 churches, pretty much all of which are fabulous. The churches tend to be white outside for the cooling, but make the time to go inside and you will be met with a riot of painted wood, gilt and especially the blue Azulejo painted tiles. The museum is rather interesting, and if you can get to a fado concert you will be richly rewarded.
The river runs through the heart of the town and then out to the sea in the south, and there is a lovely river front with a wide range of good restaurants (including a nice Japanese one, all Pokémon style, rather strangely). You can catch a passenger ferry that takes you from the river front out past the bird-laden salt flats (The Park Natural de Ria Formosa) to the Ilha de Tavira. Here you will find some fine but basic restaurants, and a lot of beaches. As a whole Tavira is a good and friendly place to spend a week, especially if you like churches.
Here is a mixed bag of my sketches from Tavira, lots of variety. The coffee and cakes are pretty much excellent everywhere, so I probably put on a couple of pounds whilst drawing:
The Old Factory. One morning we did a walk out to the Hyper Marche, and on the way found the entrance to this old factory. I can only assume that this was for the processing of the salt that comes off the adjacent salt pans. I can imagine that the old chimney was to run the machinery to boil off and package the salt; today it serves as a nesting place for the storks. I can’t say that I enjoyed the Hyper Marche, but the locals seemed to appreciate it, as is the modern way.
La Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Sao Francisco, Tavira I saw this grand old church whilst walking back from the station, and thought enough of if to return and draw it from the Pastelaria Dalia across the road. The church is set in a small square (more like a triangle), with the International College (the building with the red roof) and another chapel adjacent to the College. Behind are some more, well tended, gardens. This is one of the larger churches with some clearly ancient parts and a long story. It was built in the 14th Century under King Denis, and suffered from two earthquakes and later a fire in the 19th Century. Today the church is all closed up and you fear for its future.
La Igreja de Nossa Senora da Ajuga Ou de São Paulo. I drew this church from a lunch spot at the other end of the town square, Praca Dr. Antonio Padinha (good tosta mixta and coffee). It is a former convent church (the convent itself has gone) dating from 1606. Its deep porch adds to the coolness, and there is a museum inside.
Ermida de Sao Sebastiao Originally medieval, this hermitage was completely rebuilt in 1745 under the direction of masters Diogo Tavares de Ataide and Jacinto Aleixo Manuel Pacheco. Although the exterior is plain, the inside is completely baroque bonkers, a riot of marble and gold. Except that it isn’t - everything you see inside is faked up, all painted wood, carried out in 1759 by a local painter Diogo de Mangino. It is rich, beautiful and completely stunning (not the last time I could use that word about Tavira), and a wonderful setting for the children’s music lessons and concerts that seem to take place there. There is a very small charge to go in, less than a couple of euros, but I think it’s worth it to have someone sit there and be in charge of this little treasure.
By the way, if you wish to go church hunting in Tavira, there is an excellent little guide available online at:
https://cm-tavira.pt/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/roteiro-turistico-igrejas-en.pdf
The bus from the centre of town goes off to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and takes about 40 minutes. This town is on the River Guadiana and is the border with Spain, there is a regular ferry that runs from a mooring point next to the bus station. The last two drawings come from there.
The main square The whole town was built in 1776 by the Marquis of Pombal on a grid basis, prefabricating the buildings in component parts out of town and then rapidly erected on site. The square is the hub of the town, when we were there the Christmas market was in full swing. On one side of the square is the Pousada, in the centre is the obelisk dedicated to King Joseph 1, and on the other side is the Igreja Matriz de Santo Antonio Vila Real. We had just about gone inside the church to have a look - fundamentally plain and white and with a couple of Rococo alterpieces, when we got shooed out again by the warden, who said a little prayer and was then away for her lunch
The railway station The train drivers had gone on strike, apparently they do this quite often. So having walked out to the station and bought the tickets from the clerk who didn’t bother to point out that there were no actual trains, there was nothing more we could do than grab a beer at the cafe across the street, sketch and then catch the bus back. The station itself is a brilliant modernist construction and was designed in 1936 by Cottinelli Telmo, although it was only finished in 1945. The station has been nicely refurbished and many original elements kept. Please do visit, but just don’t rely on the trains being there.