Ilha da Culatra
| Ilha da Culatra | ||
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| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 59 ′ 17 " N , 7 ° 50 ′ 17" W | |
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| length | 7 km | |
| width | 1 km | |
| Highest elevation | Dunes 4 m |
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| Residents | 1000 | |
| main place | Culatra | |
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The Ilha da Culatra , or Ilha do Farol , is an inhabited Portuguese Atlantic island .
location
The island Culatra is located in the south of the country in the Natural Park Ria Formosa on the Gulf of Cádiz and belongs to the region of Algarve . Together with the neighboring islands, it forms a chain of islands interrupted only by a few channels or tidal creeks , which forms a natural protection for the lagoon between the islands and the mainland . It is part of the municipality of Faro in the district of the same name in the so-called Sandalgarve . To the east is the Ilha da Armona and to the west, only separated by the Canal de Olhão , the Ilha Deserta (also called Ilha da Barreta ) with the Cabo de Santa Maria , which - apart from the Madeira and the Ilhas Selvagens - the southernmost point of Portugal .
description
The flat sand and dune island is over 7 km long, up to well over a kilometer wide and has an area of several square kilometers. Like the neighboring beach islands, it was created by sediments that were eroded away from the cliffs of the western Algarve and deposited further east over time due to the prevailing flow conditions . Since the western part of the island is often also called Ilha do Farol , it can be assumed that they were originally two independent islands that were only connected to one another through land growth.
On the Ilha de Culatra there live about 1000 inhabitants distributed over three settlements: Culatra is about in the middle of the island and Farol in the very west; between the two places there is a third settlement, called hangares .
Infrastructure, tourism and sight
A ferry that operates according to a fixed timetable connects the mainland port of Olhão via the Ilha de Armona with the towns of Culatra and Farol on the Ilha de Culatra, which varies with the season, especially in the summer months . There are no hotels on the island, only overnight accommodations in private accommodation or smaller guest houses, so that tourism is not as important as in other regions in the Algarve. The sandy beach on the south coast and stretching over the entire length of the island is therefore hardly populated, even in the main season.
Still is fishing a non-negligible economic factor. The few roads on the island are mostly unpaved.
The most striking building is the 47 meter high lighthouse ( Portuguese : Farol ) do Cabo de Santa Maria , built in 1851 with a nominal range of about 25 nautical miles in the west of the island within the village of Farol.