Tavira Guide

It is thought that the entire wall which passes behind the buildings on Rua da Liberdade, where, at the site of the Post Office there was once a tower, demolished in order to build that building, which was of Portuguese construction. Also from that period is the defensive work which, staring at Rua D. Paio Peres Correia, on the post office corner of which, inside a private building, a wall and an imposing tower were built, extends to Rua Miguel Bombarda to Largo dos Mouros and follows Rua dos Mouros to Rua da Porta do Postigo, where it joined the almoadan wall.

This wall, to which is attributed, a prior, a timeline which belongs to the Portuguese and on which several towers were built, such as the great oca tower, is completely encased by private houses or surrounded by courtyards which are very difficult to access, therefore any conclusion of an archaeological dig would be mere conjecture.

By the reign of D. Manuel, the Moors had already been completely dominated throughout the Iberian Peninsula, and the fight against islamicised population had shifted, more than a century prior to that time, to Northern Africa. In spite of Tavira not being a fortified city of great grandeur, the role which the city played as a base of support for the Portuguese campaign in Morocco and the commerce which was maintained in this area of Maghreb attracted a certain level of attention from the monarchy to the defensive restoration of the city. Apart from the gate which retains its name and which was aimed at facilitating communication between the area inside the walls and the surrounding area which was undergoing earnest expansion, the fortified section of the wall, erected in Rua de Trás dos Muros and swallowed up a substantial part of the military taipa towers, which, as has already been stressed, defended the Porta dos Pelames, was also from this period. Also of the same period is the section of the wall which borders the river, at Rua dos Pelames, and is still referred to as the Barbican. In this ante-wall, there is a door from this period which still opens, at the end of Rua de D. Ana, as can be affirmed from the bevelled stones which make up the pillars of the arch.

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