Events in Loulé

Main places

• Mercado Municipal de Loulé

  Neo-Moorish building from 1908 (Art Nouveau style, designed by Mota Gomes), with four pavilions and four gates. The town's symbol. Open Monday to Saturday, 7am to 3pm — coastal fish, Caldeirão-grown produce, honey, cheese and convent pastries. Saturday morning is the classic day.

• Cineteatro Louletano

  Municipal theatre on Av. José da Costa Mealha, with regular music, theatre, dance and cinema programming. Part of the RTCP (Portuguese theatre and cinema-theatre network) and the Rede Azul Algarve circuit. Also one of the main stages of Festival MED.

• Castelo + Igreja de São Clemente

  Moorish castle on the hilltop (12th c.), rebuilt by King Dinis and now with central tower and free-entry gardens. Beside it, the Igreja de São Clemente — the parish church — built over a former mosque, with gilded side chapels and 18th-century azulejos.

• Convento do Espírito Santo (Galeria Municipal)

  Former convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Spirit (17th–18th c.). After deconsecration the church became the Municipal Museum's laboratory; the rest of the building now houses the Convent Art Gallery, with year-round temporary exhibitions. Rua D. Paio Peres Correia.

• Marina de Vilamoura

  Portugal's largest marina — 825 berths for boats up to 60 m, plus a new extension of 68 superyacht moorings. Seven-time International Marina of the Year (TYHA). Departures for the Benagil sea cave, dolphin watching and big-game fishing; five golf courses within minutes.

• Cerro da Vila (Vilamoura)

  Roman maritime villa from the 1st to 5th centuries AD, now within the Vilamoura complex. Main house with mosaics, public baths, fish-salting factory and garum production, necropolis — a 5-hectare site with on-site museum and resident archaeologists.

• Quarteira

  Fishing town that still keeps its daily fish-auction tradition. 6 km of cobbled seaside promenade and a busy Saturday-morning market. Five minutes from the Vilamoura Marina. Well-equipped urban beach.

• Salir, Querença and Alte (the inland)

  Villages of the Caldeirão hills, in the north of the council. Salir: ruined Moorish castle and the Bread Museum. Querença: Manueline parish church and the Fonte Benémola spring. Alte: Fonte Pequena and Fonte Grande, the start of the riverside trail. The other side of Loulé.

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