A Stroll around Tavira, Tavira, Portugal

I really couldn’t go to the Faro area without meeting up with blogging friend Restless Jo, could I? Or maybe I could! We planned to meet, naturally, but on the day fate intervened and our coffee date with her had to be … not cancelled, I hope, but certainly indefinitely postponed.

Nevertheless we still wanted to see Tavira, so we pressed ahead with our plan to catch a train and get there in time for coffee. I may not have managed to meet up with Jo; but I can still share our wanderings around this lovely town with her as a belated contribution to this week’s Monday Walks.

Tavira’s main station is a little way out of the old centre. But the walk from it is a delight if like me you enjoy photographing doors, windows and other architectural details.

Arriving in the Praça da República we found it lined with a number of cafés, so we chose one and settled down to enjoy a morning coffee and a spell of people watching. After our coffees we strolled out on to the Ponte Romana where we’d hoped to meet Jo. The bridge, spanning the river Gilão, has in fact little to do with the Romans. The first bridge here was built by the Moors in the 12th century and later, in the Middle Ages, houses were built on it. That bridge collapsed in 1655 (the weight of the houses, I wonder?) and was rebuilt in its present form in 1667. However some sources I’ve consulted talk of an earlier Roman bridge on this site, part of the road linking Faro to Castro Marim on what is today the border with Spain. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).