Tavira Church Cats

Wednesday January, 22 had all the potential of being a rainy day. We were ready and armed with passes that gave us access to four of the main historical churches in the city. Our first stop was an interesting combination of ancient castle fortress and two churches. The ruin of the ancient Castello do Tavira occupies the highest geographical position in the old town and was a defence for the ancient fishing town against pirates and other invaders. The castle dates from the 11th century when the Algarve and whats now known as Portugal was under Arab rule. Tavira was conquered by Christian crusaders in 1242 and the castle fortification was expanded by King Dinis in 1294. The ruin of that fortification is what we explored on Wednesday.

The interior of the ruin is filled with a lovely garden that caught terry’s attention…

as did the views of Tavira from the upper walls..

including a poinsettia tree

..and the remains of the wheel at the well

and the gate that led to two churches, Santa Maria do Castello

The Church of Saint Maria of the Castle was our immediate next stop. It’s the church with the landmark bell and clock tower that can be seen from man points in the town and at a distance.

Saint Maria Church from the castle walls

…the bell tower and oversized clock

The main doors of the church

and its facade.

The interior architecture spans many centuries as does the exterior.

A welcoming warrior saint…

a small pipe organ in the

gallery over the main door.

Baptismal font in side chapel…

crucifix…

the high altar from the nave

and the central figure of the altar

We climbed the bell tower

for some cloud filled views of the city

and the castle garden below

and went on to the next one.

The next stop in our church crawl was the adjacent Church of Santiago or Saint James of the Sword. It’s a medieval building from the 13th century that may have been built on top of a Muslim building. It was damaged in the earthquake of 1755 as were many buildings in Portugal.

There is an organ in a gallery over the main door

and a sumptuous high altar.

And Saint Theresa gazing at Theresa

On the way to our next stop, the Church of the Misericordia, we encountered an archeological excavation site that showed remnants of building dating back to the time of the Phoenicians.

The interior walls Misericordia Church, the Church of Mercies, are lined with blue and white tile depictions of the Divine Mercies. It’s also the church where a lovely friendly cat stepped into the picture. He was elegantly perched on the top of a grand piano patiently posing for whoever wanted to photograph him. We sat down for a rest and he ambled over to join us and later followed us out to the gift shop where he or she strategically disappeared under a draped display table.

There she or he was in all his glory

taking advantage of every photo op

totally upstaging the high altar.

The tiles on walls…

interrupted by the organ gallery to the right of the altar…

continue on around the room.

This isn’t a relic but simply an effigy possibly brought out for processions on high holy days.

We climbed the spiral staircase to the bell tower…

fo more views of back gardens

…and the city.

The stairwell was narrow…

as were the steps…

looking upward.

The final church on the list was the one that hasn’t been open whenever I’ve been in Tavira in the past. It’s on the opposite side of the river from where we were staying not far from the Roman Bridge.