The grand white archway that frames the entrance to the Cidade Velha from the harbour was commissioned by Bishop Francisco Gomes do Avelar in 1812, after the previous medieval gate was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. Designed by the Italian architect Francisco Xavier Fabri, it incorporates a horseshoe-arched Moorish gate at its base — the only piece of the original 11th-century walls still visible.
Step through and you are immediately in the quietest part of Faro: cobbled lanes, the bishop's palace, the cathedral square. Storks nest on top of the arch's central niche each spring, a familiar sight across the Algarve. The statue in the niche is of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the city's patron.