The Fortress of Sagres, also known as Castle of Sagres or Fort of Sagres (Portuguese: Fortaleza de Sagres), is a military structure, located near the Sagres freguesia, in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The fortress was built in the 15th century by order of Portugal's Infante Henry the Navigator. Heavily damaged in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, it was rebuilt in the late 18th century albeit with significant remodeling.. It underwent major renovations in the 1960s and 1990s. and in 2010. Inside, the Church of Nossa Senhora da Graça, also built by Henry the Navigator, stands out. The fortress is of great historical importance because of its connection to the history of Henry the Navigator and Portuguese discoveries.. In 2018 it was the most visited monument in the Algarve, probably in the entire region south of the Tagus.
Panoramic view of the fortress
Description
Site The fortress is located on a steep promontory to the east of Cape St. Vincent,. about 1 km long, 300 m wide and 40 m high, chosen as the site for the erection precisely because of its privileged position of control over the surrounding coastline. The area is now included in the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park, known for its complex faunal and floral biodiversity, with unique specimens in the region.
Monumental walls and gates
The fortress features Renaissance-Mannerist architecture. The complex is basically polygonal in shape, comprising an enceinte and six batteries facing the ocean. The walls are surmounted by bastions on both sides and in the center had a turreted cavalier, facing inland, where the main gate of the fortress is situated. The structure bisects the promontory, precluding access except through the castle, whose side ramparts also served as a defense against inland aggression toward the fortress.
This layout, with the fortification closing the only entrance to a rocky promontory, jutting out over the coast or a waterway, is widely witnessed in southern Portugal: see, e.g., Paderne Castle and Arrifana Castle, also in the Algarve, or the castles of Cola and Mértola, in the Alentejo.
In 1843, the cavalier's tower was about 50 palms (11.43 m) high and square in shape, with parapets forming a pentagon, garnished with cannons. In addition to these structures, the fortress also has several batteries and several wheeled cannons.
The neoclassical-style portal has wedges of carved stone masonry, with two padded stones, while the third one served as a plinth. The corners were changed during the restoration work, and their width was changed from 60 cm to 1 m. The portal leads into a tunnel that leads to the inner court, which is now covered with turf. This tunnel already existed in 1843, passing then under the repairs and the central tower, through a vaulted room. This room gave access to the interior of the fortress through a door, near which was also the entrance to the guardhouse, adjacent to the tower. In archaeological investigations, traces of a moat and a drawbridge were discovered at the entrance to the fortress.
Embankment and buildings There were several buildings within the fortress, including a group called the "creek" that was adjacent to a wall on the south side of the place-of-arms. These buildings consisted of the House of the Cosmograph, the Governor's House and the House of the Infante. Later they were occupied by the House of Captains and several residences and chambers. Outside the place-of-arms, further south, was another property that was identified as a warehouse, and was later used as a stable, the ruins of which remain. There were also several warehouses, several batteries with cannons, and a cistern that is one of the few original remains of the Vila do Infante.
West of the church was a rectangular building with a hipped roof and a single slab on the main facade, with nine doors. The central building was square in shape and originally consisted of two main bodies, both on two floors, connected by a curtain wall. The main facade of the first body had no plinth and ended with a cornice and eaves, with three doors and two windows on the first floor and five windows on the second floor. The second body, to the east of the first, was known as the House of the Governor and was rectangular in shape, with the main facade also lacking a plinth and topped with a cornice, with two doors on the first floor and two windows on the upper floor.
The fortress also had an auditorium.
The fortress complex also includes a circular structure known as the "Rose of the Winds," discovered in the 17th century, which is believed to have been a sundial. It is composed of several unequal-sized stones that form a radiating star with 32 directions. The "Rose" could be connected to a circular hermitage dedicated to St. Mary that would have been built at the behest of the Infante within the village.
To orient and inform visitors, several paths have been created with descriptive panels about the various parts of the monument, plant and animal species on the promontory. A two-kilometer walkway was also installed for visitors with reduced mobility.
Church of Our Lady of Grace Inside the fortress is the Church of Nossa Senhora da Graça, founded during the time of Henry the Navigator and originally dedicated to Saint Mary.
The building has a longitudinal, single-nave plan with a quadrangular apse, with the sacristy to the south in a similar shape. The interior of the nave is covered by a barrel vault, protected by a gable roof, while the chancel is surmounted by a dome on horns. The facades have no basement, the main one having two panes, one of which relates to the church building itself, where the entrance portal with an architrave is located, while the other corresponds to the belfry. The south facade also has two panes, one for the sacristy and the other for the church nave, with a window opening into the latter. The east-facing facade is the same as the south facade, also with a window, and includes a staircase for access to the bell tower.
Inside the church is a series of tombstones.
Preservation and importance The Fortress of Sagres was classified as a National Monument by Decree of June 16, 1910. The Special Protection Zone was delimited by Ordinance No. 469/87, published in the Official Gazette No. 128, Series I, of June 4, 1987. It has also received awards from International Place of Culture and Peace, Human Rights Watch, and European Heritage Label (European Union).
On January 31, 2017, the fortress was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the First Globalization Places list.
In 2018, the Fortress of Sagres was the most visited monument in the Algarve and probably in the area south of the Tagus River, having recorded nearly half a million visitors that year. The management of the building was entrusted to the Algarve Regional Directorate of Culture by Decree No. 829/2009, published in Diário da República No. 163, Série I, of August 24, 2009.
Findings Numerous artifacts were found during the archaeological excavations: ceramic containers, earthenware, building materials, pieces of glass and metal parts.
History
Previous structures The area in which the fortress is located has played an important role from a spiritual point of view, because of its geographical location, far from population centers, and its shape, like a large promontory where the land enters the sea. The oldest references are due to the Greek historian Ephorus of Cyme (4th century B.C. ) who called it Hieron Akroterion, a name translated into Latin as Promontorium Sacrum ("Sacred Promontory") by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis historia. Human occupation of the region dates back to at least the Early Neolithic, according to remains found at the archaeological site of Cabranosa, northwest of the village of Sagres. In Roman times, it is possible that it was a place of worship of the god Saturn or Hercules: several Roman remains have been found in the vicinity (Praia do Beliche, Ilhéus da Baleeira or Martinhal, and Praia da Baleeira). The area gained great importance from a spiritual point of view as the alleged burial place of St. Vincent after his martyrdom by the Roman official Dacian. During the Muslim period there may have been a building dedicated to the worship of that saint, described by the geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi as the Temple of the Raven. This temple would have been frequented mainly by Mozarabs, functioning until the 12th century, when the saint's mortal remains were transferred to Lisbon by order of King Afonso I of Portugal.
15th century
In 1438, Infante Henry the Navigator was in the Algarve region after his military defeat in Tangier the previous year, and he may have been interested in the Cape St. Vincent region at that time. Indeed, there is evidence that the Infante stayed several times in the town of Lagos, then the main port hub of Lusitanian exploration, and he may have used the stay to deepen his knowledge of the cape. It is therefore possible that at that time he matured the idea of creating a residence for himself in Sagres.. It was not until October 27, 1443, however, that the Crown of Portugal granted the territory of Cape St. Vincent to Infante Henry for life. At that time, the region was practically uninhabited, a 1434 diploma from Edward of Portugal had described it as a "lonely and deserted place, far from villages," and it was the Infante who manifested his intention to colonize it by erecting one or more villages there..
In the years that followed, Henry undertook to create his own land holdings in the Sagres region, and in 1961 historian Alberto Iria advanced a theory about the original location of the village founded by the Infante as his official residence. A site that would have consisted of several buildings surrounded by a wall, in the same place where the fortress of Sagres was later built. Several vestiges of the original masonry were later discovered at the site. The original complex, according to graphic sources left to us by Drake's Englishmen in the 16th century,. had a central building with a small staircase and two visible fireplaces that was possibly the palace of the Infante. The Henrician community was not yet known as "Sagres," and the Infante himself called it Vila do Infante ("village of the Infante") or "my town of Terçanaball/Terçanaval," names that did not correspond exactly to the village but rather to the region in which it was located.. In 1459, the Infante moved to Barlavento Algarvio, where he remained until his death, and devoted himself there to, among other things, the development of his village of Terçanabal. At that time, the village was still considered an unpleasant place, although it experienced some growth in the 1450s, mainly due to the Infante's companions (e.g., the Venetian navigator Alvise Da Mosto had arrived there in 1454). and several people who were exiled there. Because of this population increase, the Infante had the parish of Santa Maria erected on October 14, 1459, "in a place once wild and then populated," which was handed over to the Order of Christ.. The Infante died on November 13, 1460, in his village of Sagres..
After the death of Henry the Navigator, the city entered a period of decadence and changed administrators several times until the end of the reign of John II of Portugal in 1495. On October 29, 1471, King Afonso V gave the fiefdom of the city, up to Cape St. Vincent, to Rui de Sousa, while on June 22, 1487, an inhabitant of Raposeira, Rodrigo Anes, received the benefit of the captaincy of the village of Sagres. On April 1, 1495, he was granted the highest alcaidaria by King John II. In 1498, Rui de Sousa's son, João de Sousa, inherited the lordship of Sagres upon his father's death, later passing it on to his descendants, the Counts of Prado and the Marquises of Minas.