The famous Moorish poet Ibn Ammar was born in São Brás in the 12th century. Already in the 16th Century the small village had a hermitage. Due to its mild climate São Brás became the summer residence of the bishops of the Algarve from the 17th Century onwards. The Episcopal palace, built in the 17th and 18th Century as a refuge from the heat of the summer, was modified in the following centuries, so that today only part of the main building and a baroque fountain remain.

The main church was constructed after the earthquake in 1755 on a site of an older church dating back to the 15th Century. The building was significantly expanded during the 19th Century. The Chapel of Senhor dos Passos is worth while visiting because of its carvings, paintings and statues. The churchyard offers fantastic views to the sea and the surrounding landscape.

In the 19th Century the town became an important crossroads. The plantations of cork fostered the commercial development and São Brás de Alportel evolved to the biggest cork producer in Portugal and worldwide. The shift of the cork manufacturing to the centre and north of Portugal has forced the town to diversify its economy during the last decades.

The António Bentes Cultural Centre one was the home of a wealthy muleteer who grew rich in the cork trade. The museum exhibits the typical costumes worn in the 19th and and 20th Century at the Algarve and is a good example of the architecture of that period.