Heralding the arrival of spring, the almond trees come into blossom and cover the Algarve in a mantle of white.
A unique sight that spreads across the fertile hillsides of the Barrocal region, where the almond trees are covered with clouds of flowers, whose petals are then scattered over the fields and create the impression of a carpet of snow shining in the sunlight.
The legend of the almond- blossom, is a story that has remained forever in the collective imagination of the Algarve people as a way of explaining this flowery end to the winter season.
According to the legend, in the time when the Al-Gharb belonged to the Arabs, there reigned in Silves the young prince Ibn-Almundim, who fell in love with and married Gilda, the daughter of a great lord of the northern peoples, who had himself been defeated in battle by the Moorish king.
Their wedding was celebrated with a great feast, but the beautiful princess remained forever sad and did not share the prince’s happiness. Physicians were called in from all over the world, but none of them succeeded in finding a cure for that pain.
Until, one day, an old Nordic man told the king that Gilda was homesick for the white snow-covered fields of her homeland.
Ibn-Almundim therefore ordered the planting of thousands of almond-trees all over the province, so that, when they blossomed, they might cover the southern lands with white petals, deceiving the princess into forgetting her feeling of homesickness and bringing joy back into her life.
And his bidding was complied with, so that, ever since that far-off springtime, the Algarve has been filled with the magic of the almond-trees in blossom.
Source - http://www.rtalgarve.pt
