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Collecting unforgettable memories of cities Portimão grows by writing its history.

From the second half of the Discoveries period, the then Vila Nova de Portimão developed as one of the poles of Portuguese commercial expansion, flourishing beyond the walled perimeter limit shortly after its construction, with the best example of this rapid growth being the construction of the Colégio dos Jesuítas (the well-known “Igreja do Colégio”) in 1707. However, the heavy damage caused by the 1755 earthquake caused a stagnation that would only be completely overcome in the second half of the 19th century.

 

It will be then that the village, briefly city and seat of the bishopric in the final years of the government of the Marquis of Pombal, will then experience an accelerated development, due to the development of the dried fruit and fish canning industries, becoming a pole of attraction for neighboring populations who had agriculture as a means of subsistence, growing to be able to accommodate these same people, also having to build a whole series of buildings and infrastructures to be able to accommodate this industrial “take-off”. One of the major public works at the end of the 19th century was the creation of the current riverside area of Portimão, with the first embankment being created to serve as the basis for the new road bridge, an old aspiration of the locality, achieved thanks to the good services of Visconde de Portimão. Bivar, Peer of the Kingdom who managed to have this road equipment built here and not in Silves. Along with the riverside area, the pier is also built, a great support point for the intense fishing activity and for the flow of the increasing industrial production. All this growth led to the village being elevated to the status of city in 1924, when Manuel Teixeira-Gomes was President of the Republic, an illustrious businessman and writer born in Portimão, who had been the first representative of the Republic in the United Kingdom, which he left to occupy the post of highest office in the nation.

 

Already a city, Portimão sees the fish canning industry reach its zenith, being exported all over the world and still with a small push caused by the Second World War. All this growth was reflected in the urban fabric with the creation of an industrial zone adjacent to the riverside area and also with the construction of social housing to mitigate the lack of decent housing for the workforce that supported the industrial and fishing effort. The end of the War, together with a decline in fisheries, the aging of machinery and the growth of foreign competition, namely from Moroccan factories, led to a decline in canned fish, happily replaced by tourism as the municipality's economic engine. , with hotels and restaurants managing to absorb many of the former workers, in an operation that began in the 60s, with the remarkable construction of the Algarve and Penina hotels and the Torralta complex. Nowadays, with the great work that has been done, in the infrastructures, in the beaches, Praia da Rocha is considered one of the best in the Algarve.