The exhibition “Silves no Tempo e pelo Adentro” will arrive at the Municipal Museum of Archeology of Silves with the Medieval Fair. The exhibition will open tomorrow, at 19 pm, and may be visited until May 00.
"In this way, we will try to make the city's visitors aware of the importance that the river – which is a central element of the story told in this edition of the Medieval Fair of Silves – had throughout the life of this city." according to Rosa Palma, mayor of Silves
«We do not want this event to be just an event of animation, but a true discovery of the history of our city and the importance it has had over time and, in this sense, it is important to understand the role of the river in its development and relationship which he established with peoples from as far afield as the Vikings,” he added.
In 2019, the Medieval Fair, which starts tomorrow, will have as imaginary the disputes between the Muslims who ruled the Algarve from Silves and the Vikings who made incursions and attacks in the region from the sea.
And it was precisely the proximity to the sea that «made the territory of Silves a space occupied by Man since, at least, the Iron Age, when a commercial outpost was founded in the vicinity of the current city that remained active until the Islamic period» .
«It is to this last period that the oldest written source alluding to Silves goes back, which describes, the departure from the port of the city of the poet and diplomat Al-Gazali, to go to the land of the Normans to negotiate peace», framed the Chamber of Silves.
«From then until our days, History has been responsible for telling us about its close relations and its territory with the sea, both from the perspective of the exploration of its resources, as well as the access point across the river Arade to other places, with which maintained business relationships and shared ideas," he added.
The exhibition that will open tomorrow will be based «on this constant relationship and proximity to the sea» and will seek to pass through the most important points in the history of Silves. It includes «the distant trading post of Rocha Branca», but also the voyage of Al-Gazali, the Viking incursions into the Sea of the Gharb, the shipbuilding yards that made Silves rich in Islamic times and noted during the discoveries and «the departure of boats loaded with cork to distant destinations that marked the city's riverside landscape until the mid-twentieth century».
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