Moorish fortress, Silves, seen from the North

Silves (pronounced Sílvesh) is a town on the Portuguese Algarve. It is located near a Roman bridge over the Ribeira de Arade and thus controls the river valley down to the coast.

The town was occupied by the Muslims in 713 and became part of the Ummayad kingdom of Cordoba under the Arabic name of Shilb شلب. In the 10th century, it was one of the most important towns of western Al-Andalus. Silves became an independent taifa in 1027 under the rule of Ibn Mozaine and his son, who was dethroned in 1051 by al-Mu'tadid, the governor of Sevilla. al-Mu'tamid ibn 'Abbad, the son of al-Mu'tadid and a famous poet, ruled the taifa of Silves until 1091. After the Almoravid conquest the town became Almohad in 1156. In 1189 King Sancho I of Portugal conquered the town during the reconquista, but lost it again to the Almohads. The town was finally taken from the last Muslim king Ibn Afan by Paio Peres Correia, Master of the order of Santiago in 1242, after the Alentejo and most of the coast had already fallen in 1238. The great mosque was changed into a church (Cathedral Sé). In 1267 the Algarve became Portuguese. In 1491 the town was given to queen Leonora by King Joao.

Parts of the Almohad town wall, constructed from poured concrete, have been preserved, as well as the Almedina-gate (Porta de Loulé ). Other sights include the Church Santa Misericórdia with a fine door in manuelitic style, the main body of the church was built in 1727/28, a museum for cork and the production of wine-corks in a defunct factory and the municipial museum (museu municipa de Arqueologia) with finds from the palaeolithic onwards.

The town is situated on a hill above the river Arade. The Castelo de Mouros is located on the top of the hill. It occupies ca. 12.000 m2. Archaeological excavations have shown that the oldest buildings go back to the 8th century, the stratigraphy is almost 6 m deep and contains Iron Age remains as well. The walls are built of red sandstone (grés des Silves) with a pisé -core and have been heavily restored in the 1940s. Protruding towers of albarra -type protect the Northern slope. After the Christian conquest, the castle served as the seat of the alcaide-mor (provincial governor) till the middle of the 16th century, afterwards the towers were used as a prison.