Lagos | |
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 Flag  Coat of arms | |
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| Coordinates:37°6′10″N8°40′22″W / 37.10278°N 8.67278°W /37.10278; -8.67278 | |
| Country |  Portugal |
| Region | Algarve |
| Intermunic. comm. | Algarve |
| District | Faro |
| Parishes | 4 |
| Government | |
| • President | Joaquina Matos (PS) |
| Area | |
• Total | 212.99 km2 (82.24 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 31,049 |
| • Density | 145.78/km2 (377.56/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+00:00 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+01:00 (WEST) |
| Postal code | 8600 |
| Area code | 282 |
| Website | www |
Lagos (pronounced[ˈlaɣuʃ]ⓘ;Proto-Celtic: *Lacobriga) is a city andmunicipality at the mouth ofBensafrim River and along theAtlantic Ocean, in the Barlavento region of theAlgarve, in southernPortugal.[1] The population of the municipality in 2011 was 31,049,[2] in an area of 212.99 km2.[3] The city of Lagos proper (which includes only thecivil parish of São Sebastião e Santa Maria) has a population of approximately 22,000.[4] Typically, these numbers increase during the summer months, with the influx of visiting tourists and seasonal residents. While the majority of the population lives along the coast and works in tourism and services, the inland region is sparsely inhabited, with the majority of the people working in agriculture and forestry.
Lagos is one of the most visited cities in the Algarve and Portugal, due to its variety of tourist-friendly beaches, rock formations (Ponta da Piedade), bars, restaurants and hotels, renowned for its vibrant summer nightlife and parties.[5] Yet, Lagos is also a historic centre of the PortugueseAge of Discovery, frequent home ofHenry the Navigator, historical shipyard and, at one time, centre of the European slave trade.[6] In 2012, travel websiteTripAdvisor, classified Lagos as the number one travel destination, on a list of "15 destinations on the rise" worldwide.[7]
Lagos, Nigeria may have been named after it since, at the time of the 15th century, Lagos, Portugal, was the main centre of Portuguese maritime expeditions down the African coast.[8]
Lagos is an ancient maritime town with more than 2000 years of history. The nameLagos comes from aCeltic settlement, derived from the LatinLacobriga, the name of the settlement was established during the pre-Punic civilizations. It became an early settlement of theCarthaginians, who recruited Celtic tribesmen in their war against the Romans (thePunic Wars). Owing to its already important harbour, it was colonized by theRomans and integrated into the Roman province ofLusitania, becoming known as Lacobriga.Quintus Sertorius, a rebellious Roman general, helped by the Lusitanians of Lacobriga (who had been oppressed under Roman Generals and members ofLucius Cornelius Sulla party), successfully defeated the Roman army ofCaecilius Metellus Pius probably at nearbyMonte Molião.
With the fall of Rome, the town of Lagos was occupied in the sixth century by theVisigoths from theKingdom of Toledo and later by theByzantines.TheMoors arrived in the 8th century from North Africa, renaming the settlementZawaia (meaninglago, orlake). It became part of the much larger coastal region ofal-Gharb, which eventually became known as theAlgarve. The Moors fortified the town withLagos Castle and established important trade links to Northern Africa from their bases in the Iberian peninsula. In 1174, the localwālī gave permission for the Christian peoples to construct a church dedicated to São João Baptista, which was built outside the town's walls (becoming the oldest church in the Algarve).
Even as KingAfonso Henriques advanced to the south, the ChristianReconquista never made it into Algarve and Alentejo, and the south remained under Moorish control. KingSancho I, with the support of Crusader forces used Lagos as a stepping stone to attack thefortress of Alvôr.[9] Zawaia was eventually captured by KingAfonso III of Portugal in 1241, but was only taken definitively in 1249. From this period on the King began self-styling himself as the"King of Portugal and the Algarve", stressing the fact that the Algarve (which had for so long been ruled by the Moors as a foreign country) had been annexed into the dominion of the Portuguese.Lagos became an independent jurisdiction under the rule of KingPeter I in 1361.
KingJohn I assembled his fleet in the harbour of Lagos, before setting sail for the siege andconquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415. This was the first step in opening the Muslim world to medieval Europe, which in fact led to theAge of Discovery with Portuguese explorers sailing across the whole world. By the 15th century, Lagos became the centre of Portuguese maritime exploration, with ships ordered south to trace the shoreline of Africa in order to find routes to India.InfanteHenry the Navigator, third son of King John, lived most of the time in Lagos. From here he directed expeditions toMorocco and to the western coast ofAfrica withcaravels,lateen-rigged ships with excellent seafaring capabilities. Lagos was also the home port forGil Eanes who was the first to sail beyondCape Bojador in 1434, after a failed attempt in 1433 that put him out of favour with the, then considered the end of the world. The act of rounding the Cape, much like the later rounding of theCape of Good Hope, permitted Eanes (and the navigators that followed) to advance into the African subcontinent. When, by 1443, Lançarote (then fiscal officer of the crown) had sailed as far asArguim and brought back 275 Africans, the Portuguese had sufficient slaves to relieve the perpetual handicap of agricultural labour.[10]
Over the following decades, news of discoveries and achievements, and ships loaded with spices and goods would flow into the port of Lagos. It was also the gateway for the first Africanslaves into post-medieval Europe.[11] Even before Africa was opened-up to the Portuguese, the seamen of Lagos were already unscrupulous slave traders.[12] From the first slave markets in Lagos (theMercado de Escravos, which opened in 1444), many Africans were dispersed throughout Europe, bringing a considerable income to the Portuguese monarchy and merchant classes, as well as cheap labour force.[11] As the major sponsor of these expeditions, Prince Henry received one-fifth of the selling price of every slave. The demand for the indentured labour force was so high that, by 1450, profit onMauritanian slaves was 700 percent.[13] The discovery of gold by Alfonso Gonçales also increased activities in Lagos, whose residents petitioned the Infante Henry to establish a trading company to pursue gold deposits in the region.[14] This included Juan Dias (ancestor ofBartolomeu Dias who rounded the Cape of Good Hope),Gil Eanes,Lançarote de Freitas, Estevan Alfonso and Rodrigo Alvarez, who provisioned a squadron of six caravels to travel to isle of Garças in 1444, but returned with 150 Africans.[14]
Following the death of Prince Henry, and the expansion into the Atlantic and New World, the port of Lagos continued to receive shipments of goods and slaves, but its role began to decrease. Lisbon began to prosper, with ships returning directly from the colonies of the Azores, Madeira and Brazil, while trading houses began to relocate to the capital. But, even as the wealth arrived in Lisbon and Lagos, the ostentation was widely on display in the royal residences.[15]
KingSebastian, obsessed with his plans for a great crusade against theKingdom of Fez, assembled a huge fleet in Lagos in 1578.[16] During this ill-fated attempt he and most of Portugal's nobility were killed in theBattle of Ksar El Kebir in Morocco, eventually causing asuccession crisis, that eventually resulted in theIberian Union.
When Portugal came under Spanish rule, the Portuguese coast became a target for the English fleet. Lagos, close to the Spanish naval base ofCádiz, was attacked by SirFrancis Drake in the late 1580s, but was defended by its inhabitants, resulting in Drakes sack ofFaro.[17] But, the coast was under regular attack of otherpirates andcorsairs, in addition to the Spanish who bombarded the Algarve during thePortuguese Restoration War (1640–1668), which led to the construction of a string of forts all along the coast. One of them was the late-17th-centuryFort of Ponta da Bandeira in Lagos, which was completed between 1679 and 1690 (according to the stone inscription over the main door).
From 1576 to 1755, Lagos was a high-profile capital of the Algarve, until the old Portuguese town was destroyed by theearthquake and tsunami of 1755. Although some walls from the 16th century still remain, as well as the governor'scastle, many of the buildings are from the 17th century.
Two well-known naval battles took place off Lagos, reflecting its strategic location: in the 1693Battle of Lagos a French flotilla defeated a combined Anglo-Dutch force, while in the 1759Battle of Lagos a British force defeated a French force.
By its geographical position (east-northeast to west-southwest orientation) and lithological diversity, the Algarve stands out as a uniquestratigraphic andmorpho-tectonic region.[18] A peripheralCarboniferous unit of theVariscan orogeny, it constitutes theMesozoic andCenozoic sedimentary layers, deposited onto two totally distinct superimposed basins.[18] Between the Middle-UpperTriassic toHettangian, sediments evolved from continental (fluvial redsandstone) to shallow marine over the entire region, which included instances of evaporates, tholeiite fissuralmagmas, lava flows,volcanic ash andpyroclasts.[18]
The area of Lagos, conforms to the MiddleMiocene Lagos-Portimão formation (a band that extends along the coast from Lagos toAlbufeira, abutting the Serra do Caldeirão to the north) and which corresponds to marine sedimentation over relatively stable, but a minorly deformed limestone shelf platform.[18][19][20] A period of calm during the intra-Miocene (of approximately 2.4 Ma) led to generalized exposure and development ofkarst, that influences the present day coastline.[18][20] The conspicuous horizontal bending of this profile in the cliffs of Lagos, much like the remainder of the Lagos-Portimão formation, is formed by alternating bands ofsiliciclastic andcalcareouslithologies.[19] The low degree of cementation in the layers causes a high degree of instability of the cliffs.[19] The littoral and cliff sands are dominated by variousbivalve organisms,bryozoans, largerbenthicforaminifers andCoralline algae with minor additions ofechinoids andbalanids implying a shallow-water depositional system of a warm-temperate climatic regime.[19] The locality of Cerro das Mós, from where a largecrocodilian (Tomistoma schlegelii) tooth was collected long ago,[21] has also produced someOdontoceti teeth. These may be dated from theSerravallian, which, constitute the oldest marine mammal occurrence in the Algarve.[20][22]
Lagos has aMediterranean climate (Köppen:Csa) with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Like the rest of the Algarve, Lagos is very sunny, averaging over 3100 hours of sunshine a year. Precipitation is concentrated in the winter months, where highs average around 16–17 °C (61–63 °F) and lows around 8–9 °C (46–48 °F), wind and humidity are also more prevalent during this season, averaging 14 km/h (8.7 mph) of wind and around 80 percent humidity. Summers are warm to hot, very sunny and generally still, the coastal sea breeze helps to cool down the often excessive heat of this season.
Sea temperatures have little seasonal variation and are their highest in September-October and their lowest in March, averaging 20–21 °C (68–70 °F) in the summer, and 16–17 °C (61–63 °F) in the winter.[23]
| Climate data for Lagos, Portugal | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 14.9 (58.8) | 15.4 (59.7) | 17.2 (63.0) | 18.9 (66.0) | 22.1 (71.8) | 25.5 (77.9) | 27.3 (81.1) | 28.1 (82.6) | 25.9 (78.6) | 22.3 (72.1) | 17.8 (64.0) | 15.8 (60.4) | 20.9 (69.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 11.5 (52.7) | 11.9 (53.4) | 13.6 (56.5) | 15.2 (59.4) | 17.8 (64.0) | 20.7 (69.3) | 22.0 (71.6) | 22.7 (72.9) | 21.1 (70.0) | 18.6 (65.5) | 14.4 (57.9) | 12.5 (54.5) | 16.8 (62.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.5 (47.3) | 8.8 (47.8) | 10.4 (50.7) | 11.9 (53.4) | 14.0 (57.2) | 16.6 (61.9) | 17.6 (63.7) | 18.3 (64.9) | 17.4 (63.3) | 15.4 (59.7) | 11.5 (52.7) | 9.7 (49.5) | 13.3 (56.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 59 (2.3) | 51 (2.0) | 55 (2.2) | 41 (1.6) | 25 (1.0) | 5 (0.2) | 0 (0) | 2 (0.1) | 18 (0.7) | 64 (2.5) | 68 (2.7) | 87 (3.4) | 475 (18.7) |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 158.7 | 168.7 | 202.4 | 264.7 | 319.9 | 337.1 | 382.8 | 356.3 | 265.2 | 219.8 | 174.9 | 168.3 | 3,018.8 |
| Source 1: Climate-data.org[24] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Portuguese Environment Agency[25] | |||||||||||||
Lagos has many natural interest sites, including:
In 2012 Lagos received the QualityCoast Gold Award for its efforts to become asustainable tourism destination. Because of this award, Lagos has been selected for inclusion in the global atlas for sustainable tourismDestiNet.[27]
The municipality of Lagos is located approximately 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of theCape St. Vincent coast, along the southern coast of the Algarve. It is surrounded along its borders by the municipalities ofVila do Bispo (to the west),Aljezur (to the northwest),Monchique (to the northeast) andPortimão (to the east).
To the north of Lagos is the road toSilves, the first capital of the Algarve,Monchique (spa town/mountain),Milfontes, a coastal town and port/harbour of the city ofSines, that winds through the scenic protected landscape of the Southwest Natural Park (Costa Sudoeste Alentejana e Vicentina).
Administratively, the municipality is divided into four civil parishes (freguesias):[28]
Lagos istwinned with:
Torres Vedras, district ofLisbon, Portugal
Ribeira Grande, island ofSão Miguel,Azores
Ribeira Grande de Santiago, island ofSantiago,Cape Verde
Palos de la Frontera, autonomous community ofAndalusia,Spain
Ksar El Kebir, city in the province ofLarache,Morocco
Sassenheim, town in the province ofSouth Holland,Netherlands
Lagos' economy, like many coastal towns in Portugal, has always been closely linked to the sea, andfishing has been an important activity since very ancient times. Since 1960, the city has embracedtourism, which has become its most important economic activity. It has beautiful beaches, good climate, the sea, a scenic coastline, and historical patrimony.
The Marina de Lagos has 460 berths and has become an important centre for long-distance cruisers, and it is also known for its modern drawbridge.
Lagos also has numerous cultural and night-life entertainment venues.
Lagos railway station is the western terminus of theLinha do Algarve railway line, which connects Lagos toVila Real de Santo António (viaFaro andTavira). The passenger train service is operated byComboios de Portugal (CP). Connections are available atTunes for trains to Lisbon and Porto.
The municipal aerodrome handles only small recreational planes; the nearest airport isFaro.
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Many local traditions are celebrated in the municipality and range from gastronomy to traditional handicrafts.
In gastronomy, there are the local specialties:Dom rodrigos andmorgados cookies based on local products, such asalmonds,figs andeggs. Lagos is also a wine-producing region and is famous for itsmoscatel wine, and also for a strong alcoholic spirit, theaguardente de medronho, made of berries ofstrawberry tree.
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| Municipality ofFaro District (Algarve) |
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| Albufeira | Alcoutim | Aljezur | Castro Marim | Faro | Lagoa | Lagos | Loulé | Monchique | Olhão | Portimão | São Brás de Alportel | Silves | Tavira | Vila do Bispo | Vila Real de Santo António |
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| Geographic | |
| Other | |
