Lagos Old Town

Lagos was the port from which many of the fifteenth-century voyages down the African coast were fitted out, and it grew rich on what those voyages brought back. That includes the part the town now confronts directly: the first market in Europe for enslaved Africans opened here in 1444, traditionally placed on Praça Infante Dom Henrique, where an arcaded building on the site, given its present form in 1691, houses the Mercado de Escravos museum, which sets out the trade plainly rather than sidestepping it. Elsewhere the old town is a grid of narrow calçada lanes inside partly surviving walls, with the church of Santo António - a plain shell containing an extraordinarily dense gilded woodcarving interior - the adjoining municipal museum, the Ponta da Bandeira fort on the water, and a marina. The cove beaches at Dona Ana and Camilo and the stacks of Ponta da Piedade are a short walk or boat ride south.

The main sights

• The slave market building - the 1444 site, now a museum that states the history plainly.
• Santo António - a plain exterior over a dense gilded baroque interior.
• The walls and lanes - partly surviving fortifications around a cobbled grid.
• The fort - Ponta da Bandeira on the waterfront by the marina.

When to go

April to October; July and August are extremely busy. Half a day for the town. Church and museum close on Mondays.

Good to know

Very crowded in high summer, with heavy restaurant and boat-trip touting on the main lanes. The slave market museum is small but the subject is confronting. Photography is restricted in Santo António. Parking in the old town is impractical.

Nearby

Praia Dona Ana and Ponta da Piedade are south; Sagres is west along the coast.