Quarteira is a Portuguese civil parish, in the municipality of Loulé in the Algarve. The population in 2011 was 21,798, in an area of 38.16 km². he settlement of the region dates back to, at least, the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. There are still other authors who suggest that settlement of the region may have remoted to the period of Phoenician or Carthaginian traders.