Cape St. Vincent

Why go

Cape St. Vincent is a headland on the south-western coast of the Algarve, in the parish of Sagres in Vila do Bispo municipality; it is a separate place from the Sagres Fortress on the nearby Ponta de Sagres. The history page of the Sagres Fortress, run by Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, says the ancients called the wedge of south-western Algarve coast around Sagres, the Costa Vicentina, the Promontorium Sacrum. The same page says that in 779 the remains of Saint Vincent were brought to the Promontorium Sacrum and kept in the Igreja do Corvo, a monastery most authors place on the cliffs of the cape, although the page itself places it further inland, perhaps near Raposeira. It adds that the shrine was destroyed in the mid-12th century and the relics were taken by sea to Lisbon. This record is the headland; its lighthouse and the fortifications around it are not described.