Algoz

In the barrocal country between Silves and the coast, the town of Algoz lives among orange groves and dry-stone fields: a working village of the central Algarve’s interior whose very name carries the memory of the Moorish period, usually traced to the name of a warrior tribe settled here.

Oranges and the quiet centre

Algoz’s fields hold some of the municipality’s largest citrus groves — the sweet Algarve orange of the winter markets — and the town keeps a small centre around its matrix church and municipal garden, with the cafés and shops of a village that works. References to the place run back to the twelfth century, and the union parish with neighbouring Tunes spreads over the low hills and irrigated valleys of the Silves barrocal.

Between the castle town and the sea

The red walls of Silves, the old Moorish capital of the Algarve, stand a short drive west, and the resort coast of Armação de Pêra and the lagoon of Salgados lie south on the same roads. The schist-and-whitewash country of Pêra continues east, and the inland lanes run north into the hills that shield the coast from the north wind.

What to see

• The matrix church and the municipal garden
• The orange groves of the barrocal fields
• The quiet lanes of the town centre
• The roads to Silves and its castle
• The coast road to Armação de Pêra

Practical information

Algoz lies in the Silves municipality, in the central Algarve, on the inland road between the coast and the hills. Summer heat is strong in the barrocal: carry water, and check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Algoz – Portugal by Vitor Oliveira — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.