The Sé de Faro sits in a quiet square inside the walled Cidade Velha, surrounded by orange trees and the bishop's palace. Begun in 1251 just after the Reconquista, only the lower part of the bell tower and the entrance arch survive from the original Romanesque-Gothic building — the rest was rebuilt after the 1596 English sack and the 1755 earthquake.
Inside, the highlight is the chinoiserie organ from 1715 and the tiled side chapels. Climb the bell tower for one of the best views in town: the red-tiled roofs of the old town, the lagoon and the dunes of the Ria Formosa stretching out toward the sea. There is a small chapel of bones at the back of the courtyard too, much smaller than the famous one at the Carmo Church.