Estômbar

History

Estômbar is one of the oldest parishes in the Algarve. The whiteness of its buildings makes it the most Moorish-looking settlements in the concelho. Sanabus (or "Shombos"), its name at the time of the Arab occupation, constituted an important inland center with a castle called Abenabace, captured by the troops of King Sancho I in 1191. A number of important figures have called Estômbar their home over time, such as the poet Ibn Ammar, and the notorious bandit hero, Remexido, as well as members of the nobility and the clergy. Because of its favorable position (up to the late 20th century it included the present freguesias of Ferragudo and Parchal along the Rio Arade), Estômbar was formerly a very prosperous economic center. Although based mainly on an agricultural economy, it also gained importance and wealth with the development of the salt industry and of trade on the Rio Arade. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it also was a center of fish canning which led to urban growth especially near the river bank. Today its economic life is mostly tied to the support of the tourist industry (e.g., civil construction and public works). It was the seat of its own civil parish of Estômbar, but in 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Estômbar e Parchal.