Chapter 3 - CHRISTIANS and MUSLIMS

Of all the attributes credited to the Romans after conquering and firmly establishing their rule in the Iberian Peninsula, the most profound and lasting was their introduction of the Christian religion.

Prior to the 1st century AD, the Romans were already a highly religious people. In their daily lives, they were devoted to a great number of gods and goddesses. With the Emperor Constantine came the conversion to Christianity and belief in one almighty God.

Legend has it that the apostle Paul brought the gospel to the Iberian Peninsula in 40AD, but there is nothing to substantiate this. More likely, the Romans introduced Christianity in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

The Algarve was part of the Roman province of Lusitania when the Iberians and Celts began converting from their multi-deity paganism to the new religion. By then the Romans had forced the indigenous peoples out of their hilltop fortifications and resettled them in towns (citânias) each with a centre of administration and justice. They had developed industries such iron smelting and brick and tile-making, built roads and bridges, and opened schools teaching Latin - the basis of modern Portuguese.

The Romans may have established the first fortress in the Porches area at the place we now call Crastos, a word derived from the Latin Castrum, meaning the site of a defensive position. Alternatively, they may have built fortified walls and perhaps also a temple on a nearby narrow headland with sheer 30-metre cliffs on either side. The present chapel is believed to have been constructed at least in part from Roman ruins.

According to local legend, the chapel commemorates an apparition of the Virgin Mary and thus it acquired its name, Ermida da Nossa Senhora da Rocha, Chapel of Our Lady of the Rock. Its most obvious ancient features are the capitals on top of the two pillars in the arched entrance. The one on the right is manifestly Visigothic. The one on the left is heavily weathered but probably dates from the same period.

From their Germanic roots in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Visigoths brought to an end the centuries of innovative Roman rule and created a sprawling kingdom that included the most southern and westerly parts of Europe. At first, the Roman Christians regarded them as heretics. With their Arian beliefs, the Visigoths held Jesus Christ in high esteem but rejected the notion that he was the divinely created son of God. In the late 6th century, however, they came around to accepting the Catholic faith and fully integrated into the culture of the Hispano-Romans. Everything suddenly changed in the year 712 with the arrival from North Africa of invading Muslims.

The latest newcomers were known in Christian Hispania by the Latin word maurus, meaning people from Mauritania, or the Greek mauros, meaning ‘dark’. The Moors, as they came to be known in English, gave the name Al-Andalus to southwestern Spain and Al-Garb to southwestern Portugal. As followers of the prophet Muhammad, they immediately came into conflict with the Hispanic Roman Catholics.

The Christian uprising against the Moors in Portugal – the Reconquista - began before Portuguese national independence was declared in the north of the country the 11th century. The Reconquista progressed sporadically southward, interspersed by major defeats and setbacks – and also long periods of regional peace. 

Intermittently during the first two centuries after their occupation, the Moors had to contend with a foreign irritation along the shores of Iberia in the form of marauding Vikings from Scandinavia. Later, rivalries became even more complicated with warfare between two major Islamic dynasties, the long-established and puritanical Almoravids, and the Almohads, a fiercely reformist movement that originated in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

During the centuries of Moorish occupation, many Christians converted to Islam, either spiritually or nominally. In the periods of relative peace, the Moors contributed immensely to the culture and way of life of ordinary people. In Porches, as elsewhere, they transformed agriculture by introducing new crops and farming methods, including more efficient irrigation systems. Meanwhile, across the country, the population increased along with prosperity even though Reconquista fervour continued to simmer. At times in the Al-Garb in the 12th and 13th centuries it more than simmered. It raged furiously.

Chelb, modern Silves, less than 10km from Porches, became the capital of Al-Garb under the Almoravids. The Almohads seized it in 1156.  A busy city, it had a population of 20,000 or 30,000 inhabitants, twice the population it has today. The Arab geographer Idrisi, who lived from 1100 to 1166, recorded firsthand observations while travelling extensively in Portugal and elsewhere in Europe. He noted that Silves was “fine in appearance with attractive buildings and well furnished bazaars.” It had a port with a shipyard and a thriving trade dealing mainly in fruit and fish with African and Mediterranean ports. The people of Silves spoke pure Arabic and were particularly eloquent and fond of writing poetry. Both the upper and lower classes were elegantly mannered. Idrisi was less complimentary in his praise of Lisbon, describing it simply as “a compact and well-defended town.”

Aside from its architectural elegance, thriving commercialism and rich culture, Silves was noted for its mighty Moorish castle next to a mosque on the high point of the city. This was the scene of savage battles in which Portuguese forces were led or supported by passing Crusaders from northwestern Europe on their way to the Holy Land.

The first important year for the Reconquista in the Algarve came in 1189, the year of the 3rd Crusade. The Portuguese king D. Sancho I asked passing crusaders from Denmark and Friesland to attack the castle in Alvor, 13 km southwest of Silves. Six thousand men, women and children were said to have been killed during that battle.

 That same year, Sancho struck a deal that resulted in a combined Portuguese, English, German and Flemish fleet setting sail from Lisbon for Silves in mid summer. On the fourth day out of Lisbon, the fleet sailed up the Arade River and anchored close to the capital. Those living in the lower part of the city quickly fled to the better-protected upper part. As the Christians advanced, burning everything in their path, the Muslim civilians took sanctuary within the castle walls.

The Christians lay siege to the castle. The defending Moors held out for 49 days before the Christians managed to mine their way in for a second time and cut the main water supply. A condition of their surrender was that the Muslims could leave the castle with whatever possessions they could carry. As they left, however, the Crusaders stripped them of their belongings and sent them empty-handed on a 200 km trek to Seville, the nearest Moorish bastion. The Crusaders looted the castle for three days before the disgusted Portuguese king ordered them out of the castle and back to their ships.

The following summer, Almohad forces from Seville tried to retake the city. That this attack failed was partly due to the fortuitous arrival in Lisbon of a Palestine-bound fleet under the command of England’s Richard I. ‘The Lionheart’ sent a contingent to help with Silves’ defence. The summer after that, Richard’s Crusaders were in Acre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem when the Moors returned once more to Silves to exact revenge for their 1189 humiliation. All of Sancho I’s previous victories south of Lisbon were nullified as the Almohads recaptured Silves and swept through southern Portugal leaving towns in ruins. Another five decades were to pass before Silves was finally conquered by the Christians.

We can only hazard a guess as to what impact these dramatic events had on Porches, a small village and fortress outpost, close by and within Silves’ heavily contested control. But Porches played an unlikely culminating role.

Final victory for the Christians came in the reign of Sancho II and was led by his top military commander, Paio Peres Correio, master of São Tiago. He attacked Estômbar, 6 km southwest of Silves, and then went on to overcome Moorish strongholds all over the Algarve, including the castles at Alcoutim, Castro Marim, Tavira, Salir and Alvor.

Faro and Albufeira fell during the reign of Sancho II’s brother, Afonso III. That left just three Moorish redoubts: Loulé, Aljezur and Porches. Upon the capture of Porches from the Moors in 1249, Alfonso became the first ruler to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve.