Algoz

Algoz is a town and the seat of the civil parish of Algoz e Tunes in the municipality of Silves, in Algarve, Portugal. It has about 3000 inhabitants.According to some theories, the name of the town has its origins in the Arabic word Al-Gûzz or Al-Gozz which derives from the name of the Turkic Oghuz people , whose members settled in the area in the 12th century. In Portuguese, the word algoz means executioner or torturer because formal executioners and torturers recruited by the de jure Islamic authorities of the region under Muslim rule, after the Muslim invasion of Iberia, were Oghuz. Other sources cite an unnamed Castilian king arrived to the area to fight the Moors as the origin of the name. According to this source, this king used the expression "algo és" or "algo es" which means "is something" referring to the small village when told about the little importance of the locality. The Kingdom of Portugal permanently reconquered all of the Algarve in the 13th century and after that the Kingdom of the Algarve became a nominal kingdom within the Kingdom of Portugal. The patron saint of Algoz is Our Lady of Mercy. To the south of the town on a hill is the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Pilar, from here there are fine views across the surroundings. On the eastern slopes of this hill there is a meadow called Amoreira. There have been many archaeological findings there revealing much about Algoz past. There are also two other chapels in the area. The one in the west is dedicated to Saint Sebastian and one in the east dedicated to Saint Joseph. Formerly a village, Algoz was upgraded to town status on July 12, 2001. In 2013, the civil parish of Algoz merged into the new civil parish of Algoz e Tunes and the town of Algoz became the seat of the new civil parish.

Wikipedia