Leopold Alfred Gabriel Germond de Lavigne, travelling in Algarve

Leopold Alfred Gabriel Germond de Lavigne, a senior French official in the Ministry of War at the time he was travelling through the province, said:

“At present there are no accessible roads to get from the centre of Portugal to the west of the interesting province of the Algarve. The peaks that separate these two regions are only accessible by mule, and the tracks are not always practicable. The least difficult route would be the one that crosses the Serra de Monchique and winds down through this small village to Vila Nova de Portimão and Lagos. A railway is being built to extend the existing line that links Lisbon to Beja and Casevel; until this has been completed, we have to get a public coach from Beja to Mértola, an old Moorish city; we continue down the Guadiana, squeezed between the Portuguese and the Spanish banks as far as the mouth of the river. There, in Vila Real de Santo António we come across other coaches, even worse, which cross the whole kingdom from east to west via Tavira, Faro, capital of the province, Albufeira, Portimão and Lagos.

In Lagos we hire a coach. During the journey we have lunch in the beautiful village of Figueira, from the provisions that we brought for two days. (…) These consisted of bread from Lagos, tuna dried in the sun and cut into pieces, sardines in olive oil, tinned mortadella, wine from Portimão, excellent water, chestnut coffee and medronho brandy. 

Testemunho de Manuel Joaquim d’Almeida (inglês)

Manuel Joaquim d’Almeida, who was Civil Governor and deputy for the constituency of the Algarve, was a frequent traveller to Lisbon and he described his experiences thus:

“On one of these occasions, because my mother was going, they took me so that I could experience the delights of travelling in those days. It must have been in about 1888: you had to go by carriage to Vila Real de Santo António, and spend the night there in a rather uncomfortable inn, and the next day we boarded an old paddle steamer belonging to Sr. Alonso Gomes, which went up the Guadiana as far as Mértola, where we rested in another somewhat uninviting inn. The bumpy journey continued by carriage over ten leagues of ascending roads along the deserted, old road to Beja, with a break at the so-called ‘House of Change’, because that was where the horses were changed. That was where I first saw horses eating bread soaked in wine which they gave them because they looked so tired. The people there were bizarre and rather uninspiring. Strange looking figures were to be seen, wrapped in blankets, even lying on the ground. A dark night, fumes from the olive-oil lamps, we didn’t dare to sleep. Grandfather did not let go of his leather bag suspended on a strap across his shoulder. In the end we set off again, to get the train from Beja to Barreiro and Lisbon as is still the case today. You had to put up with great discomfort and danger, and it all had to be repeated on the return journey to Faro”

Contrato Sentimental, Lídia Jorge

"(…) não é do deserto que pretendo falar, é da minha pátria acessível, a mais privada, aquela para qual imagino uma nova Metrópole a organizar-se, diante do mar, e ainda que soe mal, por ela eu daria a minha vida, como aquele poeta mexicano, em relação a dez dos seus lugares.

                Refiro-me ao Algarve, uma região que se manteve durante séculos autónoma em relação ao país, mesmo no plano simbólico, de tal modo que por vezes os monarcas só a nomeavam depois de darem a volta ao Mundo, na enumeração que faziam dos seus territórios privados. (…)"

Contrato Sentimental, Lídia Jorge – Sextante Editora, 2009.p.149

Faro, antes e depois