It is a town in the district of Faro, one of the municipalities with a single parish, which corresponds to the entire municipal territory. This is limited by Tavira north and east by Olhão the southeast, south Faro and Loulé west.

This territory hides a history of thousands of years, where human occupation dating back to prehistory, from the Paleolithic awarded by various findings such with the chips is flint, quartz and quartzite, a black shale burnisher and a pebble in shale jaspóide that appears to have drawn one of the surfaces one bovid and the other a horse (mobile art). Other periods with a more relevant history are the Roman and medieval Islamic.

The Roman occupation was attested by the findings and remains found in this region, which point to the existence of burial grounds, farm couples, a villa a mutatio, ie a station changes of animals and cars for travelers, and sidewalks that interconnected the old road network Roman. These sites were discovered fine pottery fragments campaniense and sigillata land; common; amphorae and Dolia storage; and construction tegulae, imbrices and bricks; and lighting as small lamps; was also found one mascarão of Situla wing or handle pot and graves with booty that refers to the second century / BC, and even extending to the IV-V AD two funerary monuments were later found in ara, having one of them an inscription dedicated to Cecilia Marina and a relief decoration on four faces considered as unique in Conventus Pacensis.

Already the Islamic occupation was confirmed by more archaeological sites documentary sources that chronologically present the occupation of the Califal period between the tenth and eleventh centuries; and Almohad, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, these traces are Alcarias and small agricultural villages, some located along the cobbled roads. In some places they were discovered ceramic artifacts, including tableware; kitchen among pots and bowls; storage as pitchers and jars; and construction as typed tiles; and even metal artifacts such as two amulets, seen as prophylactics objects with religious inscriptions of centuries XI and XII and XII and XIII, along with a set of currencies that includes a dinar, a gold coin.

Since the second century or B.C., or from Roman times until the county’s founding in 1914, São Brás de Alportel always belonged to the city of Faro, old Ossonoba, one reason that keeps an intimate town with this. But little is known its history from between the last conquest of the Algarve, in 1249/1250 and the Visitation of the Order of Santiago in the early sixteenth century.

In the fifteenth century, São Brás de Alportel would have only a hermitage, which was located near the route of Roman origin, the current being “Calçadinha” which provided a link between Faro and the northern lands. In the following century, São Brás de Alportel was elevated to parish seat, and rebuilt a new temple, with larger and wider.

Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the transfer of Silves bishopric headquarters to the city of Faro, the Bishop of the Algarve had built in São Brás de Alportel the Episcopal Palace.

In the nineteenth century, this region has become an important economic center due to plantations of cork oaks that drove business development and made this town the largest producer of cork in Portugal.

In the early twentieth century, the movement in defense of autonomy of the region was born in the hand of João Rosa Beatriz, from São Brás de Alportel, was advocate of the municipality of São Brás de Alportel, and together with the Parochial Commission Republican organized a movement that gained momentum in 1910 due to political conditions and government that met up old supporters of Republican propaganda, known João Rosa Beatriz. However, many barriers are erected to this movement, which forced João Rosa Beatriz to move several times to Lisbon, to request support from various personalities decisive to raise São Brás de Alportel the county. The December 1912, revolutionary leader Machado Santo presents the project law grants the administrative autonomy of the then parish with more population of the municipality of Faro, the House of Representatives. The efforts and João Rosa Beatriz diligence performed well and São Brás was elevated to municipality in 1914.

Subsequent to these events, a temporary Administrative Commission was created in presiding over Virgil steps. In order to install the new municipality, and despite some clashes in September was ceded to Alportel Chamber of the Episcopal Palace and parish residence for official schools of education to function.

Already in October 1914, João Rosa Beatriz was appointed to the position of interim administrator of the county, the Civil Governor of Faro, where it set as a priority public education, security then maintaining public order and access to the village of São Brás de Alportel. In November, the first Municipal Committee of the village was elected, and as president of the Senate, José Pereira da Machada.

After a policy change, the course of events has changed, where the democratic government appointed a new civil governor for the district of Faro, which in turn, dismissed João Rosa Beatriz from office and replace him by Dr. José Baptista Dias Gomes. However, despite being deprived, João Rosa Beatriz has continued to profess their ideals and love for their land, always fighting for the benefits from the installation of a mobile library in the village, the creation of a municipal office, to place a rural postman in the city and the installation of the railway line which provided a link between Loulé and São Brás.

The winds of history changed direction, ideas, opinions, and especially dreams that guided the founders and intrepid parents in the municipality of São Brás de Alportel.