Ferragudo

Ferragudo is a Portuguese civil parish at the western border of the municipality of Lagoa. The population in 2011 was 1,973, in an area of 5.41 km2. Ferragudo serves mainly as a bedroom community for its much larger neighbour, the city of Portimão; its residents routinely travel across the Arade River to work in the neighboring municipality.

==History== left|thumb|235px|The Fort of São João do Arade, constructed in the 16th–17th century to protect the coast from pirates and privateers There have been various explanations for the community's name: from the inheritance of Ferragudo in Castro Verde, the fort of Ferragudo in Vila Viçosa, the Spanishman Johane Anes Ferro Agudo de Espanha or the locality of Ferragudo. The most plausible explanation is the traditional one, probably from the 14th century, which suggested the existence of an iron machine that existed on the beach of Angrinha, and which was used to raise fish for market. This iron machinery or "engenho de ferro", which was relatively "pointy" or "agudo" evolved into "ferro agudo" or Ferragudo.