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The apartments " Belo Horizonte" located in Praia da Rocha 1,5Km from one of the main Algarve citys,Portimão, is a city and a municipality located on the southern coast of Portugal. Before ascending to the category of city in 1924, its name was Vila Nova de Portimão The area already attracted people in prehistoric times. The Conii, influenced by Tartessos and Celts, were established in the territory of the Algarve for a long time. The mouth of the River Arade provides a safe, natural harbor and was a small trading point for Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians, the latter founding here Ports Hannibal’s —known today as Portimão—about 550 BC. Later it was the Romans who occupied the predominantly Celtic region. In the 5th century, the Visigoths inhabited the Algarve until the beginning of the Moorish invasion. During the Moorish occupation (711-1249), Portimão was called " Burj Munt ". The river provides sea access to the ancient, up-river city of Silves (at that time called Xelb) which, in Arab times, was the lavish capital of the Algarve. Like Silves and Alvor, the small fishing center Portimão was in 1249 conquered from the Muslims by the Cavaleiros da Ordem de Santiago and integrated in the Portuguese throne, at the time occupied by Dom Afonso III,the "King of Portugal and the Algarve". The optimal geographical location favoured a strong economic development of the settlement, obtaining the status of “vila” (small town) in 1453. Early on, the inhabitants realized that it was necessary to build walls, since the place was too unprotected. With the construction of forts, S. João's in Ferragudo and Santa Catarina in Praia da Rocha, the town of Portimão became secure against the constant attacks of pirates and corsairs. In Portimão, the main commercial connections were made by sea. Transport to the other margin of the Arade was done with a boat that moored in the Largo da Barca. Until the highway bridge was built, four hundred years later, this would be the only possible form of crossing the river. In l463, king Dom Afonso V,at the request of a group of inhabitants of Portimão, granted authorization to found a new settlement, with the name S. Lourenço da Barrosa. The urban center of Portimão starts getting build. In 1476, Vila Nova de Portimão is donated by Afonso V, to his financial overseer D. Gonçalo Vaz de Castelo Branco. It belonged to his family until the 17th Century. Naval construction also was of extreme importance for the development of the town. This activity is recorded in countless royal documents like the authorization for the cutting of trees given in 1563 by D. Sebastião.In 1573, the king visits Portimão. He passes the night and attends a solemn mass in the Convento de São Francisco. From the port of Portimão were local products exported like figs, oil, wine, brooms or fish and re-exported products from the African colonies or Brazil, like slaves and sugar. In the 17th and18th century, development slowed down considerably. Slackening trade in 1734 makes the town lose people, a situation that repeats itself in 1758, this time due to the ruinous state that the town was in after the earthquake of l755. The main church was ruined and the 15 small chapels that still existed in Portimão and surroundings were seriously damaged. The town wall had suffered severe damages, not only due to the quake, but also because of the violent force of giant waves. Santa Catarina's Fort also suffered damages and was rebuild in 1792 and 1794 by count Val de Reys. Twenty years after the earthquake, Marquês de Pombal intended to make Portimão a bishopric, therefore he elevated it to the status of city but Queen D. Maria I vetoed his intentions. The city status will only be granted to Portimão in 1924, by its illustrious son Manuel Teixeira Gomes,while President of the Republic. In the 19th century the fish canning industry revives the old town., It was commonly renamed Portimão and became one of the most important centers of the fishing and canning industry on the Algarve until the early 1980s when the recession drove the remaining factories out of business. Already at the end of the century, many visitors stayed in houses and estates along the coast, enjoying the great attraction that was the Beach of Praia da Rocha or the Beach of Santa Catarina. In 1910, August 1, opens the Casino of Praia da Rocha, symptom of the growing affluence of people to this resort, marking a phase of continuous improvements that attracts the aristocracy of the south of the Country and Andalusia. Houses and chalets were build along the coast where numerous tourists are welcomed. The first hotel, Hotel Viola, built in the first decade of the 20th century, becomes too small and in 1932, it is enlarged. In 1936, the Hotel Bela-Vista is built. At that time the number of tourists was calculated at not less than a thousand a year.
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Portimão