Faro has a great variety of architectural heritage. Most of the city was built in the years between 1920 and 1980, these constructions belong to the architecture of modernism. A distinction is made between the style of Art Deco buildings, which are mainly located in the south of the city, and the South Modern, which are mainly found in the north-east of Faro.

The defining figure of this time was Manuel Gomes da Costa (1921-2016), who played a key role in shaping the cityscape of Faro. Modernism was also a political movement against the Portuguese dictator Salazar (1932-1968).

In fact, Faro is the city with the highest density of modernist buildings in all of southern Europe. There are around 500 buildings that still exist today. Some of these are sadly in need of some renovation and interest in modern architecture is a recent phenomenon.

Franziska and I did not look at all 500, but some of these buildings on our tour of Faro and sharpened our view of the beauty of this style. We will be back.