Compiled: 2026-08-21 · Replaces the research report of Nov. 2024 · Status: draft
About this document. This is the source dossier behind the texts and the narration for this site. It was compiled in August 2026 with AI assistance under named editorial responsibility (see About Heritage Navigator), and it replaces an earlier, AI-generated research report from November 2024 that mixed sourced facts with unsourced and invented material. The dossier was written in Danish as the working document and translated into English for this page; Portuguese place names, quotations and source titles are kept in the original.
Every factual statement carries a source number [n], referring to the source list in section 6, and a confidence grade:
Legends and traditions are kept in their own section, with a source for the fact that the story is told, not for its truth. Claims that could not be verified, or that were rejected, are listed separately so that the reader can see what was left out and why. Quotations are reproduced only where the wording was seen in the source. Dead links are recorded as dead, with the date, rather than omitted; where a page exists only in the Internet Archive, the archive URL is given. Section 5 lists what would take an archive, the municipality, the museum or a historian to settle.
The app's coordinate (37.12556, -7.65081) lies on Calçada de D. Paio Peres Correia on the south-east slope of the Santa Maria hill, about 35 m north-east of the castle — registered in OpenStreetMap as "Núcleo Museológico Fenício", old name "Solar da Família Corte-Real" [11]; the Google listing is called "Ruínas Fenícias de Tavira", Calçada Dom Paio Peres Correia 4 [12]. It is the excavation area where Maria Maia (Campo Arqueológico de Tavira), in a rescue excavation in 1997, uncovered a 13 m stretch of a Phoenician casemate wall with a maximum thickness of 9.5 m, dated to the second half of the 8th century BC [1][2][3]. Beneath the wall lay Late Bronze Age hut floors; on top of it lay dwellings and silver workshops of the 7th century, later Turdetanian layers with an altar in the shape of an ox-hide (4th century BC), Islamic houses and the palace of the Corte-Real family (15th-16th century) [1][4][6]. The municipality calls the site "Escavações arqueológicas dos Corte Real (futuro Núcleo Fenício)": a museum section is planned but not opened — the ruins are seen from the street through the fence [4][5][12]. The cult wells (bothroi) beneath the Palácio da Galeria and the urn cemetery by the Convento da Graça belong to the same town but lie elsewhere — see palacio-galeria.md.
| Claim | Source | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| The site and access | ||
| The coordinate falls within the OSM polygon "Núcleo Museológico Fenício" (way 303361106; tags: archaeological_site, civilization=phoenician, old_name "Solar da Família Corte-Real"), Calçada Dom Paio Peres Correia | [11] | C |
| The municipality: "Neste local, onde se crê ter sido a residência medieval dos Corte-Real … foram encontrados importantes vestígios arqueológicos dos séculos VIII a.C. a XVIII d.C."; "Para este local está prevista a instalação de um núcleo museológico dedicado às épocas fenícia e turdetana" | [4] | A |
| Turismo de Tavira: "A partir da Calçada D. Paio Peres Correia é possível observar uma extensa área de escavações levadas a cabo pelos arqueólogos Maria Maia e Manuel Maia, do Campo Arqueológico de Tavira"; structures from the 7th century BC to the 18th century, including "o troço de uma rua islâmica e o arco gótico … até à sua futura integração no Núcleo Museológico" | [5] | A |
| Neither the museum's nor the municipality's list of museum sections (Aug. 2026) mentions a Phoenician section — only Palácio da Galeria, Núcleo Islâmico, Bairro Almóada and others | [23] | A |
| Google reviews (2022-23): "temporarily closed", the ruins "can be observed through protective wire", "not very big", close to the square | [12] | C |
| The museum's find record: excavations at "Solar Corte Real (Calçada D. Paio Peres Correia)" 1998-2007 under the direction of Maria Maia for the association Campo Arqueológico de Tavira; finds from the Late Bronze Age (8th century BC) and the Iron Age "com presença de comunidades fenícias" | [6] | A |
| The wall (1997) | ||
| Maia: "Na campanha de escavações realizada em 1997, na colina genética de Tavira, o Alto de Santa Maria, pusemos a descoberto um troço de larga muralha de alvenaria de pedra calcária aglutinada com barro, que classificamos como fazendo parte de um conjunto defensivo fenício" | [1] | B |
| Location: "A meia encosta do Alto de Santa Maria e à cota de 8 m., acompanhando o lado grosso modo Sul"; "Atinge uma espessura máxima de 9,5 m., numa extensão escavada de 13 m." | [1] | B |
| Two phases, M.F.1 (c. 4 m thick) and M.F.2 (3.5-5.5 m), "ambas datadas da segunda metade do séc. VIII a.C."; together up to 9.50 m | [1] | B |
| Construction method: two non-parallel shells of local limestone ("pedra caliça", 30/40 × 15/20 cm, only roughly dressed) bound with red clay; cross-walls (passadiços) form casemates filled with loose blocks; the outer face to the south slopes at 70-80° and was rendered with yellow-green clay | [1] | B |
| In the SE corner a massive bastion whose profile "mergulha por debaixo da muralha medieval portuguesa"; a third wall (M.F.3) runs north | [1] | B |
| The type ("salomónica" / casemates and passadiços) has parallels at La Fonteta (Alicante) and Castillo de Doña Blanca (Cádiz); Pappa: known from Carthage among other places | [2][3][8] | B |
| A further stretch of wall was later found at Terreiro do Parguinho 2-4 (Mateus 2010); Maia suggests a course towards the NW towards the inner harbour | [2] | B |
| The settlement | ||
| Beneath the wall: "taças carenadas, ditas do Bronze Final"; in the Solar dos Corte Real "diversos fundos de cabana, que testemunham a transição entre a Idade do Bronze e os primeiros contactos com o mundo fenício" (Maia & Gómez Toscano 2012) | [1][2] | B |
| The municipality's archaeological records: first settlement "nos inícios do 1º milénio a.C. (séc. X/VIII a.C.)"; in the 1st Iron Age (8th-6th century) come "novas comunidades humanas de matriz cultural fenícia, assistindo-se a uma forte urbanização do espaço e à construção de muralhas" | [7] | A |
| Maia: Tavira was not an apoikia (a new Phoenician foundation) — "Tavira foi, na sua origem, um povoado pertencendo à cultura do Bronze Final", which from the late 8th century acquired rectilinear stone houses and predominantly Phoenician pottery, "provavelmente via Cádiz" | [1] | B |
| Silver metallurgy: lime kiln on the inner side of the wall, "algaraviz" (tuyère) and "uma pequena barra muito dúctil, de prata"; the 1999 campaign (C.R.99) "confirmaram que a metalurgia da prata foi uma das bases económicas" | [1][2] | B |
| Corte-Real: part of a monumental building, "relacionável com uma aristocracia ou segmento populacional que creio de origem exógeno" (Maia & Silva 2004: 180) | [2] | B |
| Written find: a potsherd with Phoenician characters on both sides (Maia & Silva 2004: 185) → "um grupo de pessoas que escrevia e compreendia o alfabeto e a língua fenícios" in the late 7th century; published as an ostracon by Amadasi Guzzo & Zamora 2008 | [2][10][18] | B |
| Turdetanian layer with "um altar em forma de pele de boi (séc. IV a.C.)" | [4] | A |
| The town as a whole | ||
| Cult wells beneath the Palácio da Galeria (2nd half of the 7th century), interpreted by Maia as bothroi for Baal; Pappa: red slip, mushroom-rim jugs, incense burners, "a silver pendant associated with the cult of Astarte, a small ivory betyl" | [2][3][20] | B |
| Urn cemetery by the Convento da Graça (Cruz del Negro urns, C14 749-687 BC) — "the first known necropolis in Portugal that can be associated with a Phoenician settlement" | [2][3][16] | B |
| Maia 2004: two harbours — a trading harbour at Praça da República (BNU), an inner/military harbour at Bela Fria; fishing and salting installations at BNU (4th-3rd century BC) | [2][8] | B |
| en.wikipedia: "one of the first Phoenician settlements in the Iberian West … massive walls, at least one sanctuary, two harbours and a regular urban structure which lasted until the end of 6th century BC" | [10] | B |
| Abandonment | ||
| Maia: "um nível de destruição e abandono desta muralha, datável dos finais do séc. VI ou da primeira metade do V", in which part of the settlement is given up while the harbour area is built up more densely | [8] | B |
| Covaneiro & Cavaco: the hill abandoned "nos inícios do século IV a.C." in favour of Cerro do Cavaco (Maia & Silva 2004: 178); others: 1st half of the 1st century BC; the centre moves to Balsa; the authors consider the abandonment gradual | [2] | B |
| Records: from the 2nd century BC "um decaimento da área urbanizada, sendo escassos os vestígios arqueológicos do período romano" | [7] | A |
| Islamic resettlement of the hill from the 11th century (not the 8th century) | [2] | B |
| The excavators: Maria Garcia Pereira Maia and Manuel Maia, Campo Arqueológico de Tavira; Manuel Maia died Sept. 2021 | [1][5][22] | B |