[1] In a dominant position over the mouth of the river Gilão, the settlement has developed as an important sea port since antiquity, with its predecessors dating back to the 8th century BC, passing through the hands of Phoenicians, Greeks, Celts, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors and the Portuguese crown.

When the Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula, the village, then called Balsa, acquired strategic importance due to the presence of a bridge over the river.

Tavira was conquered on 11 June 1239 (May 1240, according to Alexandre Herculano or even 1242 according to other sources), by the forces under the command of D. Paio Peres Correia, Master of the Order of Santiago.

Tradition associates this achievement with a reprisal by that Order for the death of seven of its knights in an ambush while hunting on the site of Antas, in the current parish of Luz.

The following year, a treaty was signed by which Alfonso III of Portugal (1248–1279) would marry Afonso X's daughter and, if that union resulted in a son who would turn seven, his maternal grandfather would give him the gift of the Algarve.

The defense of the village was complemented, in 1672, by the beginning of the construction of the São João da Barra de Tavira Fortress, in Gomeira, bordering the Gilão river in 1717.

In the area of the current Praça da República, next to the Overseas National Bank building, an old horseshoe arch door was found, associated, in its origin, with a defensive tower.

[2] From the conquest by the Christians, a new constructive stage took place, giving it the oval plant still identifiable today, which, in the Low Middle Ages, reached about five hectares, a considerable surface for the time and which attests to the importance of the settlement.

From this period, interventions carried out under the reigns of D. Afonso III and Denis of Portugal are noteworthy, believed to date from the latter the remains identified in the grounds of Pensão Castelo, as well as the original configuration of the D. Manuel Gate, in a broken arch still in Gothic style.

[2] Local tradition states that, in the castle, there is an enchanted Moorish who, every year, on the night of Saint John's Eve, appears to mourn his destiny.

On a Saturday morning and when choosing the best place to attack the walls, he saw on the Church of Santa Maria seven huge figures with flags in their hands and on them the arms of the apostle Santiago.