14/02/2020
Do you know that the Tavira's river was named by love?
Legend tells us that at the time of the moorish occupation, there was a moorish king in Tavira whose daughter was called Séqua.
And by the time of the christian conquest of the kingdom of Algarve there was a handsome knight named Gilão. Gilão met Séqua and fell in love with her madly... however, it was a forbidden love: a moorish princess and a christian knight.
But as love was very strong, the lovers used to met secretly, every late night, over the bridge that joins the two banks of Tavira's river.
One of those nights, the knight and the princess were surprised by both factions, the christian military faction in one bank of the river and the moorish military faction in the other. The knight and the princess were terrified as they were discovered, because they knew they would be accused of treason, then dramatically they decided to end their lives. Séqua threw herself to one side of the bridge (upstream) and Gilão threw himself to the other side of the bridge (downstream).
According to legend, they are still drifting in the river.
This explains why the river has two names: Séqua for the side of river's source and Gilão for the side of river mouth. Gilão and Séqua are ultimately the same waters and Tavira is the fruit of their love.
