The name Paderne derives from the lower Latin word Paterni, which means estate of Paterno, used when the area was part of the Roman Empire.

But Paderne, or as it was formerly called, Paderna, was also an old toponymy whose origins were in the Lusitanian culture, signifying rough, tough, hard and intractable.

These galleries were once used as copper mines, but later reused by the peoples that dominated the Algarve: the Phoenicians, Romans, Goths and Arabs.

The castle was taken by Christian forces of King Sancho I of Portugal, but retaken by the Moors again, who kept it until 1248, when knights of the Order of St. James, under Paio Peres Correia, defeated the Islamic garrison.

The castle of Paderne was purchased in 1997 by the Instituto Português do Património Aqruitectónico, or IPPA, the forerunner of the National Registry IGESPAR.