| FARO - PORTUGAL
Faro is both a city
and a district in southern Portugal.
Faro is the administrative centre for the whole of the Algarve region. The
city has about 55,000 inhabitants. Most of its present attractive older
buildings were constructed after the disastrous earthquake of 1755 and the
earlier one of 1532.
The Moors who occupied the place in the 8th Century originally gave to it
the name of Ossónoba and developed it into a trading port until 1249 when
they were defeated by the forces of the portuguese King Afonso III. With the
decline of the importance of the City of Silves this town 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.
Another interesting item is that during the 500 years of Moorish occupation
there were some Jewish inhabitants in Faro who were busily writing copies of
the Old Testament.
Faro is also the home of the Ria Formosa lagoon, a nature reserve of over
170 km² and a stopping place for hundreds of different birds during the
spring and autumn migratory periods. The beach is almost 7 km distant from
the city and is a long sandy spit reached by crossing a bridge.
The city has an autonomous public University (the University of Algarve) and
an International Airport.
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