Algarve Unlocked

Currently Playing: How a Sardine Tycoon Transformed an Algarve Town

🏨 BOOK GRAND HOUSE ALGARVE: https://www.bordoyhotels.com/en/grand-house-algarve/hotel 🎁 Get 10% off with dicount code: ALGARVEADDICTS (code in capitals) One of the Algarve’s grandest hotels was built by fish. In this video, we spend 24 hours at the historic Grand House Algarve while travelling through more than 500 years of Vila Real de Santo António’s extraordinary history. Long before the modern town existed, this was a dangerous frontier shaped by fishermen, smugglers, pirates and the Guadiana River. Then, during the eighteenth century, the Portuguese Crown created an entirely new town—planned on paper and built to control fishing, commerce and the border with Spain. A century later, fish created an industrial fortune. We discover how canning entrepreneur Manuel Garcia Ramirez commissioned the magnificent Grande Hotel Guadiana for the international merchants and businessmen visiting this increasingly prosperous town. This wasn’t a grand hotel built because tourism had made the Algarve rich. It was built because sardines and tuna had already made Vila Real de Santo António rich. Join us as we explore the town, the hotel and the remarkable story connecting them—from sunrise and breakfast to sunset cocktails beside the Guadiana. ▶️ WANT TO DISCOVER EVEN MORE ABOUT VRSA? Watch my original Vila Real de Santo António video from five years ago, now with more than 60,000 views: https://youtu.be/_h36c5hJRB0 #Algarve #Portugal #VilaRealDeSantoAntonio #GrandHouseAlgarve #AlgarveHistory #LivingInPortugal #VisitPortugal #EasternAlgarve #AlgarveHotels #AlgarveAddicts