The Algarve’s Regional Culture Directorate (DRCAlg) and Monchique Municipality inaugurated the Caldas de Monchique Tour today as part of the Monchique Hiking Festival.

The Algarve Literary Route’s Monchique Tour was inaugurated today by the Algarve’s Regional Culture Directorate (DRCAlg) and the Monchique Municipality as part of the Monchique Hiking Festival.

The signposted Route, which includes a set of itineraries across the region, is based on literary texts by Algarve authors and others who referred to the Algarve in their works.

To create the Route, a relationship was established between the literary references and the physical spaces that generated the texts, which were then organised and interconnected through narratives to show the coherence between various stopping points.

The narratives result from the intersection of the literary texts and the interpretation of the landscape, complemented with other relevant information that accompanies hikers in a unique and enriching experience across the landscape.

The Monchique itinerary is a walk through the Caldas de Monchique’s thermal complex, along which a new look at the location and its history is promoted, filtered by a set of literary references, as is the case of Portuguese writer Ramalho Ortigão, who described this location as the “Sintra of the Algarve”, and other authors who wrote about the Caldas de Monchique.

Each brochure, available on the website, offers a narrative that results from a compilation of literary texts with the biographies of the writers and the territory and is complemented with information about each location’s history, demography, gastronomy, legends and traditions.

The ” Algarve Literary Route” mentors are Sílvia Quinteiro and Rita Baleiro, professors and researchers at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management of the University of the Algarve.