Parchal serves mainly as a bedroom community for Portimão, and many of its residents travel daily across the Rio Arade to work in the neighboring municipality.

Parchal, on the east bank of the Rio Arade, was separated from the freguesia of Estômbar on June 20, 1997.

The name “Parchal” appears to derive from “Parchel” or “Praxel”, the name of an old Franciscan monastery in the neighbouring village (to the east) of Calvário, in the freguesia of Estômbar.

Basic agriculture at first, and fishing and fish canning later, were the poles of attraction leading to the creation of the first nucleus of settlement across from Portimão, and linked to it by the railway bridge and the “old” road bridge at the turn of the twentieth century.

A major fishing boat harbour was created on the Arade below the bridges, and at the height of the canning industry in the middle of twentieth century, a number of canneries established themselves in the area.