Capela dos Ossos

Underground locations provide insights into geological processes and human history. Natural caves display limestone formations, stalactites, and subterranean rivers formed over thousands of years. Artificial sites include Roman catacombs, medieval cellars, and mining tunnels that document economic and social developments. This collection features prehistoric burial chambers with wall paintings, extensive cave systems with lakes and passages, and historical mines for salt, copper, or coal. Visitors can explore archaeological findings, mineral formations, and technical installations from earlier periods. Temperatures remain constant throughout the year, and many sites offer guided tours through their underground chambers.

European crypts and catacombs form a network of underground burial chambers beneath urban streets. These spaces house tombs, skeletal remains, and religious monuments from different historical periods. The chambers contain frescoes, mosaics, stone carvings and architectural elements that combine Roman, Egyptian and Christian designs. The structures reveal burial customs and religious practices from the 1st through 19th centuries.

Inland Algarve holds nature reserves, medieval castles, and Roman ruins that together form a wide picture of Portuguese history and nature. Monchique has thermal springs, Silves shows a castle built of red sandstone, and Faro contains a chapel lined with human bones. Natural parks like Ria Formosa provide habitat for many bird species, while historic villages, coastal fortresses, and lighthouses mark the landscape. Travelers through this region encounter places like Cabo de São Vicente, where land ends at the southwestern tip of Europe, the cliffs of Ponta da Piedade near Lagos, or the ruins of Paderne Castle. Caldas de Monchique invites bathing in warm spring water, the Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos follows the coast through cut valleys, and Igreja do Carmo in Faro holds another bone chapel. Between these are beaches like Praia da Marinha and Praia do Barril, Roman excavations such as Cerro da Vila in Quarteira, and Palácio de Estoi, a pink palace from the 19th century. The Algarve connects coast and interior, history and nature in a way best explored on foot.

The Algarve offers some of Portugal's most scenic landscapes, with a coastline alternating between golden beaches, ochre limestone cliffs, and rock formations shaped by marine erosion. This collection features the area's most notable sites, from the sea caves of Benagil to the natural arches of Ponta da Piedade, and the expansive areas of Ria Formosa, a protected wetland spanning 37 miles (60 kilometers) along the coast. Beyond the coastline, the Algarve also boasts a notable historical heritage, including the medieval Silves Castle built from red sandstone and the white alleys of the old town of Albufeira. Beaches such as Praia da Marinha and Praia do Amado attract photographers as well as surfers, while coastal villages like Cacela Velha maintain an authentic ambiance. These locations are particularly suitable for photography due to their contrasting colors and Mediterranean light.