Around 1734, during the Armação dos Mares de Tavira, the first cabanas (cottages or fishing huts), important for storage and maintenance of equipment, as well as accommodating the fishers, were constructed.

The first birth in the area was outside the fishing season, around 1757, and the following year, the municipal council conceded the first land tenure in the Cabanas de Armação.

Cabanas is a long line of low-rise shops, bars and cafés facing the Ria Formosa with several hotel and apartment complexes scattered around the outskirts of the town.

In addition to the parish seat, the territory is constituted by several individual places, such as Gorgulho, Canadinha, Canada, Arrancada, Pocinho de Oliveira, Gomeira, Barroquinha, Barroca, Morgadinho, Morgado, Baleeira and Lacém.

Pedras da Rainha (Queens Rocks), as it was known, provided the first local employment, and over time, it began to look to tourism as an alternative industry to the primary sector.

Annually, thousands of visitors come to the region to entertain themselves with rich patrimony, including the Ria Formosa Nature Park and the approximately seven kilometres of beaches, dunes and crystalline waters.