Alcantarilha

Alcantarilha is a small parish in Silves municipality, sitting a few kilometres inland from Armação de Pêra on the Central Algarve coast. Best known for two things: the 16th-century Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) inside the parish church, its walls and ceiling lined with the skulls and bones of over 1,500 parishioners; and FIESA, the International Sand Sculpture Festival, held each summer on the outskirts and billed as the largest event of its kind in the world.

Away from those two draws it stays quiet. Whitewashed houses, small cafés, a working rural village that sees most of its tourism in passing. Worth the short detour from the coast.