Tavira Guide

Phoenician walls

At the end of the VIIIth century, a population of Semitic descent or culture, belonging to the group which classical sources refer to as the Phoenicians, arrived on the Peninsula which is today known as Colina de Santa Maria, the place where the city of Tavira was born. They settled here and built a wall.

Up to now, archaeological work carried out has only permitted this structure to be traced around an extension of approximately 12m, since this section is topped, in the South Eastern part, by a massive, quasi circular tower with a walk-through section, from which another block emerged, this one being narrower, facing in a SE-NW direction along approximately 9.6m (campaign of 1997).

At its base, the Phoenician wall has an elevation of 8m above the current sea level (Netos – Núcleo Museológico Fení­cio), between Calçada de D. Paio Peres Correia and Rua da Liberdade, and reaches a thickness of 9.5m. During its initial construction (end of VIIIth century AD), it had a thickness of about 4m, but was amplified, during the same century or the beginning of the following century, by means of another construction which added a slope to the internal face, following a line which was not completely parallel, and the thickness of which varied from 3.5m to 5.5m. This internal reinforcement was to lose its functionality by the end of the VIIth century, a period in which civil (or industrial) structures overrode it. (to be continued)

Legend:

1. Wall at the Phoenician section of the Municipal museum of Tavira (Netos).
2. Wall at Calçada D. Paio Peres Correia
3. Eastern wall/gate of the Phoenician wall
4. Wall in Cyclopean Taipa
5. Tower of Military Taipa
6. Plastered wall
7. Barbican
8. Barbican gate
9. Tower of Military Taipa
10. Connecting the bride to the albarrã tower
11. Tower of Military Taipa
12. Oca tower

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