LouléLoulé, located 16 km North East of Faro, is a typically busy commercial town situated at the bottom of a hill covered with almond trees. It is an old town where only fragments of the walls of the castle, initially Roman, then Moorish, remain. These walls are in the centre, well-known amongst visitors for their craftsmen, their ancient charm and festiveness.
As you walk through the narrow cobbled streets, you suddenly come across poorly lit workshops. Look through the darkness and you will find craftsmen beating copper, sewing leather or selling forged ironwork, cane furniture, basketwork or embroidery. If you visit Loulé at Carnival time, generally in February, you won’t see very much sadness. Despite the fun not matching that of Rio de Janeiro, many people from the Algarve visit this town to enjoy two days of allegoric processions with floats, happy participants in fancy dress and, sometimes, experience not so much fun and games but events that can involve fireworks and paint. If you would like to come, don’t forget to wear old clothes. Carnival arrives before Lent and, at Easter there is a much more serious procession. On Easter Sunday, the heavy sophisticated image of the Virgin Mary, also known as the Sovereign Mother, is carried in a procession from the Nossa Senhora da Piedade Chapel (which is one kilometre from the town), to the parish church. The return procession, a much larger festive occasion, takes place two weeks later. Every year, in August, there is a craft fair and often a market on Saturday mornings at the town market, constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. |
