GEOGRAPHY

Total area: 151 km2 

Resident population: 12,461 people

Population density: 82.52 inhabitants/km2

Urban centres and rural agglomerates: Sines (Municipal capital - see photo), Paiol, Casoto



Economy: Trade and services, heavy and light industry, harbours/ports, fishing, etc.

Morphology: To the north of the Cape of Sines, sandy coastal plains; at Monte Chãos (photo), the highland mass of  Sines; to the south, the coastal plains with escarpments and small beaches.



Climate: Mediterranean with influences from the Atlantic Ocean

HISTORY



Sines has been settled by humans since Pre-Historical times and traces may be found representing all the stages of its history. The wealth obtained from the sea around Sines and the sheltered spots along its coastline bestowed Sines its economic identity from a very early age. The Romans made Sines their port and trading post (the name Sines comes from sinus, the Roman word for bay). Sines grew mainly as a fishing village, until, in the year 1362, King Pedro I made it a municipality because of the possibilities it represented as a defence post watching over the coastline. Building work on the castle, the main monument in Sines, was finished by the population itself, in return for the king granting the town its administrative status. About a century afterwards, in 1469, the navigator Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, probably in the Castle. Until the middle of the 20th Century, Sines gained its livelihood mainly from fishing, tourism, the cork industry and the canning industry. In the 1970s, a port and an industrial platform were built in the north of the municipality. 

NATURAL HERITAGE



- The Sancha Lagoon (the Nature Reserve of the Santo André and Sancha Lagoons)
- The Moinhos Rivulet
- Morgavel Dam
- The Morgavel and the Junqueira Rivulets
- Nature Park of Southwest Alentejo and the Vicentine Coast (photo)

BUILT-UP HERITAGE



- Sines Castle
- The Church of Our Lady of Salas (photo)
- The Mother Church of St. Salvador
- The Misericórdia Chapel
- Sines Historic Centre
- The statue of Vasco da Gama