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District: Castro Marim
Region: Faro, Portugal
Post Code: 8950
Distance from Faro: 52 km
Residents: 3.000
Tourist Info
+351-281 531 800
Police
+351-281 531 004
Fire Brigade
+351-281 543 112
Health Centre
+351-281 530 100
Town Hall
+351-281 510 740 |
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Castro Marim
On the Rio Guadiana, the Algarve, Portugal’s border with Spain |
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| Castro Marim & surroundings, hotels, holiday villas & apartments, golf, events, restaurants, points of interest, history and many more useful information. |
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The first settlements in this area date back to approximately 5000 BC, possibly situated on the hill where the castle now stands. During this time Castro Marim was closer to the sea and most likely an island. For thousands of years it was a port for the ships sailing up the Guadiana River to the metal mines to the north.
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Phoenicians and Romans where present here, and a Roman road connected this area with Lisbon, running in parallel to the Guadiana River and passing Alcoutim, Mértola and Beja.
During the Moorish occupation a fortified structure existed, that became the core of the present castle. Due to the strategic position of the town on border with the kingdom of Castile , Castro Marim became the headquarters of the Order of Christ after the Christian reconquest. When the order later was transferred to Tomar a long period of decreasing importance and declining population began.
The period of stagnation due to the cut off from the sea and its economic basis, fishing, salt production and boat building only ended recently by the new dynamics of the last decades.
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