The traditional Algarvian houses in literature: contribution to the development of architectural tourism in the Algarve

This paper aims to suggest the association of literature and tourism as a way to promote architectural tourism in the Algarve region, to contribute to the preservation of this material heritage and to increase tourism activity in the innermost regions of the Algarve. Thus, we focus on the Algarve traditional houses and observe how their presentation as an additional product of the tourism experience only implies renaming these houses as literary places and tourist places, and it does not involve any negative impact on this heritage. Consequently, in this paper we present a selection of literary representations of the Algarve traditional houses in Portuguese texts and show how these pictures have the potential to enrich and promote tourism experiences in the region. These traditional houses are places worth visiting for its authenticity, for all that was written about them, for all that their architecture reveals about the people and the Algarve, and for their beauty as an aesthetic object. The look on the traditional Algarvian houses mediated by literary texts has the dual potential to promote the works of Portuguese authors and to motivate the recovery and preservation of this architectural heritage.