MANTA ROTA
N 37° 10′ 04″; W 7° 31′ 08″
Manta Rota is a small seaside town in the civil parish of Vila Nova de Cacela, municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, in the Algarve, Portugal. It is an important tourist destination due to its sandy beaches by the Atlantic Ocean.
Manta Rota Beach is located 10 km west of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, 15 km East of Tavira, and about 40 km East of the city of Faro.
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VILA NOVA DE CACELA
37° 09' 25" N; 7° 32' 47" W
Vila Nova de Cacela is a Portuguese village, headquarters of the Parish of Vila Nova de Cacela in the Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, a parish with an area of 44.46 km² and 3873 inhabitants (2021), therefore having a population density of 87.1 inhabitants/km², which allows it to be classified as a Low-Density Area.
History
Vila Nova de Cacela began to develop at the beginning of the 20th century in a rural area of farms mainly due to the construction of the Cacela railway station and the old EN125.
It is next to this communication route that the first buildings of the new town appeared, which as it grew has been absorbing the old traditional sites, with an interesting toponymy: Buraco, Bornacha, Monte Grande, Poço Velho, Venda Nova, Coutada and Carvoeira. At the same time, some industry linked to agriculture also emerged, such as a mill and olive oil mills.
Around the main town, the parish sites are: Pocinho, Portela, Cevadeiras, Quinta Manuel Alves, Lota, Praia do Alto, Igreja, Fábrica, Terra Branca, Nora, Ribeiro do Junco, Areias, Marcela, Beco, Corujeira, Fonte Santa, Caliço, Quatro Estradas, Alfarrobeira, Poço das Cotovias, Arrife, Torre dos Frades, Rodeo, Cruz de Morto, Monte da Pita, Corte António Martins, Ribeira da Gafa, Pomar, Monte Novo and Pedra Alva.
Geography
It is territorially separated from the rest of the municipality by the parishes of Altura and Castro Marim, in the municipality of Castro Marim, thus constituting an exclave of the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António.
Climate
The parish's climate is Mediterranean; winters are short and mild and there are five dry months, from May to September, with summer temperatures sometimes high. Average annual rainfall is around 500 mm.
Biota
In the natural vegetation, stone pine associated with cork oak would predominate on the coast, in the barrocal limestone belt the holm oak associated with carob and mastic trees and in the mountain region the cork oak associated with holm oak.
The predominant crops are almond trees, olive trees, carob trees, fig trees and orange trees, which adapt very well to the deep and fertile soils found from the mountainous region to the sea.
Tourism
Manta Rota
Manta Rota is an important seaside resort, it developed from an old fishing village. During the summer its waters can reach temperatures above 24 °C. In the vicinity of this tourist center, the Ria Formosa begins and the remains of a Roman village are located.
Cacela Velha
Cacela Velha is a village located on a sandstone elevation in front of the Ria Formosa and the sea, in the parish of Vila Nova de Cacela, in the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António,[1] from whose fortress you can see one of the most beautiful panoramic views of the leeward side. Algarve.
Description
For many, the most beautiful area of the Ria Formosa, it admirably retains its charm and peacefulness. From the beautiful walled town of Cacela-a-Velha, built on a fossil cliff about a million years old, you can admire the Ria Formosa and the barrier island where the sea beach is located. On the Fábrica pier there is a restaurant popular for its razor clams and oysters.
The town of Cacela Velha is part of the eastern route of the Portuguese Way to Santiago.
Ribeira de Cacela
Small watercourse whose importance is related to the existence of one of the most important fossil deposits in the country, as well as an interesting irrigation system that includes a dam of unknown origin, and the ruins of a watermill and several levadas. Furthermore, we also find karst formations and a fountain in this river where, according to legends, enchanted Moors appear.
Santa Rita
Small village that has some archaeological remains, lime kilns, daughter-in-laws and typical houses, as well as an 18th century chapel dedicated to Santa Rita.
Ria Formosa
Lagoon formation with a rich and varied fauna and flora separated from the sea by a fragile system of islands and sandy peninsulas, channels, salt flats and salt marshes; in this parish is the eastern end of the Ria Formosa Natural Park - the Cacela peninsula, between Barra de Cabanas and Manta Rota beach -, from which a unique landscape can be seen; Next to the estuary, close to Manta Rota, there is a medieval sidewalk and a well-preserved fossil cliff.
The Ria Formosa Natural Park extends along 60 km of coast, between Ancão and Manta Rota, coinciding with a lagoon system formed from sediments brought by the sea and the watercourses of the nearby river basin. It is limited to the south by a dune chain with two peninsulas - Ancão and Cacela - and sandy barrier islands separated by bars - Barreta, Culatra, Armona, Tavira and Cabanas.
Like all coastal systems of this type, the Ria Formosa dune range is subject to erosion and coastal drift.
The geometry of the coast in front of Cacela has varied over the centuries depending on sea currents, storms, earthquakes, and human action. Cacela Velha has been, alternately, inside and outside the Ria Formosa, having had in front of it, at different times, more or less wide and extensive barrier islands, bars, or vast sandy areas. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Cacela bar was the terminal point of the Ria Formosa, where the Tavira canal - the maritime access route to that city - flows into it.
The Ria Formosa is endowed with great biological richness, with diverse fauna and flora of national and international importance, mainly as a habitat for water birds. The humanized landscape is complete with freshwater courses, patches of salt marsh and stone pine, and some areas of pasture.
Barrocal
Furthermore, in the barrocal region of the entire parish, there are a series of farms with 19th-century buildings to which the population designates chalets, and it is also advisable to admire the landscape that can be seen from the Caliço campsite, where you can see part of the lee coast and the Cerro de São Miguel (411 m), as well as the Serra de Tavira (525 m).
The existing and outcropping limestones in the Cacela area are from the Jurassic, being formed by oolitic limestones. These limestones have small carbonated spheres the size of fish eggs, resulting from the deposition of carbonates around small cores (shell fragments or grains of sand) and subsequent rolling in wave-breaking areas. When these spheres reach larger dimensions, the limestones are called pisolithic. There are no occurrences of fossils, but the existence of oolites and pisoliths is indicative of a deposition environment in shallow, energetic, and warm waters.
The outcrops of limestone formations are not large enough in the parish area for the existence of a typical Barrocal Algarve landscape. However, there are some erosion phenomena typical of limestone, namely sinkholes at the Fonte Santa site, close to the Cacela River, close to its intersection with the railway line. The Cacela stream sometimes disappears, "swallowed" by these caves.
Historical Heritage
Monuments of Quinta da Nora and Herdade da Marcela
Cacela Velha or historic center of Cacela Velha
Roman oven at Quinta do Muro
Cacela Castle
Cacela Fortress
Main Church of Cacela-Velha or Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Beaches
Praia da LotaPraia da Manta Rota
Praia de Cacela Velha
Praia da Fábrica
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