| Lagos is a charmingly historic yet vivacious coastal city close to the splendid beaches of Praia de Batata, Praia de Pinhão and Praia da Dona Ana. Cosmopolitan in atmosphere, Lagos, aside from its history, prides itself on its bustling marina and its many attractive bars and restaurants that really come alive during the long summer evenings. |
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| Situated at the mouth of the river Bensafrim, the Phoenicians and the Greeks took advantage of the excellent natural port facilities of Lagos. Thought to have been founded in about 360 BC by a Carthaginian captian named Bohodes, under the Roman occupation the city became an important trading port called Lacobriga. |
| Conquered for Islam in about 714, the Moors dubbed the city Zawaia and endowed it with battlement walls, (still largely standing) which were then repaired and augmented by their Christian successors after the conquest of Lagos for Christendom by Afonso III of Portugal in 1250. |
| Perhaps the most famous historical connection boasted by Lagos is the fact that it was the 15th century port city of Prince Henry the Navigator (Infante Dom Henriques) who divided his time between Lagos, where he lived and died, and his famous school of navigation at Sagres at the western extremity of the Algarve. |
| It was here at Lagos that Prince Henry founded a shipyard for the building of his famous caravels which played such a crucial role in the great era of Portuguese maritime discovery, many of the most famous voyages embarking from Lagos including native of the city Gil Eanes’ first rounding of the Cape of Bojadar in 1434 and the many voyages of exploration along the west African coast. It was also from Lagos that Prince Henry embarked upon his conquest of Ceuta in Morocco from the Moors in 1415. |
| Trade with the Africa increased dramatically during the 15th and 16th centuries with Lagos becoming a major trading station for ivory, spices, precious metals and slaves; Lagos having the doubtful honour of hosting the very first European slave auction in 1444. The building (Mercado de Escravos) in which the slave auctions came regularly to be held still stands in the Praça da República opposite the Church of Santa Maria near the water front. |
| In 1578, King D. Sebastião of Portugal, suffering from a surfeit of religious fervour embarked from Lagos with an army of 17,000 men on a crusade to eradicate Islam from North Africa. Shortly after disembarking at Tangiers, he advanced to Alcácer-Quibir where a Moroccan force comprising some 40,000 cavalry under Sherif Muley Abdelmalik butchered half of D. Sebastião’s army and took the other half into captivity. D. Sebastião himself was killed. However, ‘Sebastianism’ lived long in the imagination of the Portuguese people and for years after the disaster a variety of impostors ‘returned’ claiming to be the lost D. Sebastião. There is a modern statue of D.Sebastião by João Cutileiro in the Praça de Gil Eanes in the city centre. |
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Following D. Sebastião’s departure, Lagos became the capital of the Algarve and remained so until the earthquake of 1755 when the city suffered extensive damage. |
| In front of the city, on the sea wall, there is a 17th century fort, Forte do Pau da Bandeira built to defend the city against pirate raids. |
| Other interesting historical aspects include the devastating bombardment of Lagos by Sir Francis drake in 1587; the defeat of a French naval squadron by Boscawen in 1759 a little way off-shore from Lagos; and the fact that Nelson used to moor the entire British Fleet in Lagos bay. |
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Lagos
Algarve Guide
