the cathedral's spartan sanctuary, in contrast to most Portuguese churches

SILVES - The Ancient Moorish Capital

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August 11th 2015
When the Moors invaded the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century, they selected for their capital a hill located on a river amid rich arable land a few miles inland, named it “Xelb”, and surrounded it with orange and almond trees. They crowned the hill with a castle-fortress to house rulers, administrators and their families, with underground grain storage silos and an enormous cistern f ... read more

Europe » Portugal

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Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil a... ... read more