In 1807 the French had occupied Portugal, and the Prince Regent and leading Portuguese families had fled for Brazil. Public uprisings against the French during their occupation were far and few between, but Olhão in 1808 was one of the few towns to take a stand, and they were successful.
Olhão’s uprising led to the French being overthrown in the Algarve, and less than one month afterwards sixteen men from Olhão boarded a small boat – Bom Sucesso – and sailed for Brazil to notify the Prince Regent that the French had been ousted from his Algarve Kingdom. The Olhanense achievements over the French and their extraordinary sail to Brazil led the Prince Regent to granting a royal charter and a new name – Vila de Olhão da Restauração. The rest of Portugal did not have quite the same success as the Algarve in ousting Napoleon’s troops and it was not until 1814 with the support of the English and Spanish that Portuguese eventually secured Portugal.
Olhão’s financial fortunes came from the fishing industry and its port; these days though both are a shadow of their former selves – just look at the photographs below. Whilst the fishing has declined, mainly due to the tuna taking a different migratory route, Olhão remains one of the main fishing centres in Portugal hence all my fish tales!
If you are still reading this and therefore managed to avoid being sidetracked by my fish tales, and the fascinating Museu Fotografico de Olhão website, let me sidetrack you with something else. Something which has been intriguing us and I hope you might be able to help with.
De duas classes de gente se compôs, portanto, inicialmente o povo do sítio de Olhão: da gente do campo, os montanheiros, e os marítimos. (There are two types of country people in Olhão – the hill people and the seafarers)
I find social history fascinating and would love to hear from you if you know anything more about ‘os montanheiros’ or ‘os marítimos‘.