Quartel da Atalaia, Tavira

The Atalaia Barracks, located in the parish of Santiago, Tavira, was built in 1795, by the Governor General of the Algarve, the Count of Vale dos Reis, Nuno José Fulgêncio de Mendonça Moura Barreto. To this barracks came the so-called Regimento de Infantaria nº14, from the city of Faro.

Around 1837, and by the extinction of the R.I.14, due to the support given to Miguel I of Portugal during the Liberal Wars, the Caçadores Battalion nº5 is placed in this barracks, replaced ten years later by the Caçadores Battalion nº4. This last battalion is transformed, years later, into the Regimento de Infantaria nº4, which returns to Faro in 1915.

In 1917, during World War I, a battalion of the R.I.4 leaves Tavira to fight in France. And in 1926, as a result of several requests to the Government, the R.I.4 returns to Tavira, staying in this city until 1939, returning this year to Lagos.

In 1939, the Atalaia Barracks received the Centro de Instrução de Sargentos Milicianos de Infantaria for the training of sergeants, which was maintained until the end of the Colonial War. The CISMI is extinguished in 1989, and integrated in the Faro Infantry Regiment.

From September 1939 onwards, the courses for sergeants began to be taught there. In 1948 it began to function as an independent unit and was named the Training Center for Militia Infantry Sergeants.

When CISMI was extinct, in 1975 it became part of the Faro Infantry Regiment, changing its statute again on August 1st, 1993, to become a Center for Staff Training.

Since July 1996 the Tavira Military Holiday Center has been in operation at the Atalaia Barracks.