Fodor's Expert Review Mercado de Escravos

Prince Henry the Navigator brought the first African slaves to Portugal for his personal use in 1441. He later established a slave market in West Africa to cope with increasingly large and barbaric slave auctions, and by 1455 around 800 slaves were transported to Portugal each year. The first African slave market in Europe was held under the arches of the old Casa da Alfândega. The building now contains a small and not-so-informative museum that looks at the history of slavery in the Algarve, so read up to get educated ahead of your visit.