Fort Nossa Senhora da Luz (Lagos)

Praia da Luz (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɾajɐ ðɐ ˈluʃ]), officially Luz, is a civil parish of the municipality of Lagos, in Algarve region, Portugal. The population of the civil parish in 2011 was 3,545, in an area of 21.78 km2. Also known as Santorini de Portugal, Luz de Lagos or Vila da Luz (a contraction of its former official name, Vila da Nossa Senhora da Luz), "Praia da Luz" (which means Beach of the Light) is used to refer to both the urbanized village and the beach. The parish had its origins in a small fishing village (the industry is now only found in isolated enclaves to the west), but was transformed by several holiday-villa complexes into a tourist area.

Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who, at the age of 3, disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007. The Daily Telegraph described her disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history". Madeleine's whereabouts remain unknown, although German prosecutors believe she is dead.Madeleine was on holiday from the United Kingdom with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, her two-year-old twin siblings, and a group of family friends and their children. The McCann children had been left asleep at 20:30 in the ground-floor apartment while their parents dined with friends in a restaurant 55 metres (180 ft) away. The parents checked on the children throughout the evening, until Kate discovered Madeleine was missing at 22:00. Over the following weeks, particularly after misinterpreting a British DNA analysis, the Portuguese police came to believe that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and her parents had covered it up. The McCanns were given arguido (suspect) status in September 2007, which was lifted when Portugal's attorney general archived the case in July 2008 for lack of evidence.Madeleine's parents continued the investigation using private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own inquiry, Operation Grange, in 2011. The senior investigating officer announced that he was treating the disappearance as "a criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction or burglary gone wrong. In 2013, Scotland Yard released e-fit images of men they wanted to trace, including one of a man seen carrying a child toward the beach on the night Madeleine vanished. Shortly after this, Portuguese police reopened their inquiry. Operation Grange was scaled back in 2015, but the remaining detectives continued to pursue a small number of inquiries described in April 2017 as significant.In 2020, police in the German city of Braunschweig stated there was a new suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, a German national and convicted sex offender who public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was convinced had abducted and murdered the child.Madeleine's disappearance attracted sustained press coverage both in the UK and internationally, reminiscent of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Her parents were subjected to intense scrutiny and baseless allegations of involvement in her death, particularly in the tabloid press and on Twitter. In 2008 they and their travelling companions received damages and apologies from Express Newspapers, and in 2011 the McCanns testified before the Leveson Inquiry into British press misconduct, lending support to those arguing for tighter press regulation.

Espiche is a village of the civil parish of Luz, in the municipality of Lagos, in Algarve region, Portugal.

Vale Verde International School (VVIS) is an international school located in Burgau, Algarve, Portugal. The school was established in 2002 when it obtained its official license from the Ministry of Education. The school is one of two licensed international private primary schools in the Western Algarve. VVIS has an emphasis on British education and follows a modified version of the English curriculum and prepares students for IGCSE and A level examinations. All IGCSE subjects are based on the Cambridge University curriculum. Admission to the school is dependent on a successful interview and entry examination. The school became a member of the European Council of International Schools ECIS and the Council of International Schools CIS. It is also an accredited University of Cambridge Examinations Centre, one of only five school centres in the Algarve. In 2007 it received planning permission to build Portugal's first bilingual primary school which delivers some subjects in Portuguese.. The buildings were officially opened in August 2010 and are fully air conditioned. The bilingual concept took two years to devise and formed the basis of a Masters in International Education dissertation by its director, Louise De Beer. VVIS also completed a purpose built theatre in 2008, following the successful addition of a sports centre and an adaptable marque for open air productions and dining purposes.

Almádena (Portuguese pronunciation: [alˈmaðɛnɐ]) is a village located in Portugal's western Algarve. Administratively, it is part of the civil parish (freguesia) of Luz, (popularly known as Praia da Luz), and the municipality (município) of Lagos.

Burgau, located in the western region of the Algarve, under the municipality of Vila do Bispo, is a former fishing village. Now living mainly on tourism, its most notable attraction is the small beach of Praia de Burgau, surrounded by cliffs that protect it from the frequent strong wind characteristic of Barlavento. The area retains a strong local Portuguese presence, as well as international residents, largely owing to the presence of the Vale Verde International School. The peak-season brings in a number of tourists due to the available amenities, hotel and a number of small apartments that can be rented during the summer. The village has approximately 250 residents. In 2010, Burgau was voted by readers of the Lonely Planet as the "quaintest beachside village" in Europe.

São Gonçalo de Lagos is a civil parish in the municipality of Lagos, Portugal. It was formed in 2013 by the merger of the former parishes São Sebastião and Santa Maria. The population in 2021 was 23,671, up from 22,095 in 2011, in an area of 29.15 km2.

Lagos is a Portuguese wine region centered on the Lagos municipality in the Algarve region. The region has Portugal's highest wine classification as a Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC). Located on the southwestern corner of Algarve, the region is bordered to the east by the Portimão DOC.

Igreja de São Sebastião is a church in Portugal. It is classified as a National Monument.

Lacobriga (Laccobriga or Lacóbriga (Lacobrica in Latin)) was an ancient town of Celtic origin, usually identified as the predecessor of the current city of Lagos in Portugal. The nearby Archaeological Site of Monte Molião is also known as Lacobriga. Founded by the Conii around 1899 BC, there is evidence of Phoenician presence around the seventh century BC. It was conquered by the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca, who then recruited Celtic tribesmen in the Punic Wars against the Romans. The original settlement was destroyed by an earthquake in the fourth century BC. Following the disaster, the Carthaginian captain Boodes resettled the city on its current location in 250 BC. Owing to its important harbor, it was colonized by the Romans and integrated into the Roman province of Lusitania, becoming known as Lacobriga. In 76 BC Quintus Sertorius, a rebellious Roman general, helped by the Lusitanians of Lacobriga (who had been oppressed under Roman Generals and members of Lucius Cornelius Sulla party), defeated the Roman army of Caecilius Metellus Pius probably at nearby Monte Molião. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the town was occupied in the 6th century by the Visigoths from the Kingdom of Toledo and later by the Byzantines.

Lagos (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈlaɣuʃ] ; literally "lakes"; from Proto-Celtic: *Lacobriga) is a city and municipality at the mouth of Bensafrim River and along the Atlantic Ocean, in the Barlavento region of the Algarve, in southern Portugal. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 31,049, in an area of 212.99 km2. The city of Lagos proper (which includes only the civil parish of São Sebastião e Santa Maria) has a population of approximately 22,000. Typically, these numbers increase during the summer months, with the influx of visiting tourists and seasonal residents. While the majority of the population lives along the coast and works in tourism and services, the inland region is sparsely inhabited, with the majority of the people working in agriculture and forestry. Lagos is one of the most visited cities in the Algarve and Portugal, due to its variety of tourist-friendly beaches, rock formations (Ponta da Piedade), bars, restaurants and hotels, renowned for its vibrant summer nightlife and parties. Yet, Lagos is also a historic centre of the Portuguese Age of Discovery, frequent home of Henry the Navigator, historical shipyard and, at one time, centre of the European slave trade. In 2012, travel website TripAdvisor, classified Lagos as the number one travel destination, on a list of "15 destinations on the rise" worldwide.Lagos, Nigeria, may have been named after it, since, at the time of the 15th century, Lagos, Portugal, was the main centre of Portuguese maritime expeditions down the African coast.The parish of Praia da Luz, in which Madeleine McCann was disappeared in 2007, becoming the famous place in the municipality.

Ponta da Piedade (Portuguese for "point of mercy") is a headland with a group of rock formations along the coastline of the town of Lagos, in the Portuguese region of the Algarve. Consisting of yellow-golden cliff-like rocks up to 20 meters high, they are one of the most famous touristic attractions of Portugal. Several grottos in Ponta da Piedade can be visited by boat. The location also contains a lighthouse, dating back to 1913.