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Places to Visit

Fortaleza de Sagres Cape St Vincent Beaches Recommended restaurants in Sagres

It can be a powerful sensation to sit quietly anywhere along the cliff tops and look out to sea, pondering the extraordinary adventurers who have passed this way.

Pounded by huge Atlantic breakers, with wind-swept cliffs facing the sea on three sides, Cape St Vincent at the western tip of the Algarve seems like the very edge of Europe.

Indeed, it was known as "O Fim Do Mundo", the end of the world by the ancient explorers who passed this way on their voyages of discovery.

Fantastic is the only word to describe this barren, throne-like headland, which was the last sight of home for the nervous Portuguese sailors as they headed out into the unknown sea.

The location of Cape St Vincent, the most south-westerly point in Europe, surely figured in Prince Henry the Navigator's choice for a new, fortified town which was established close by at the Ponta de Sagres promontory.

Sagres became the headquarters for Henry's semi-monastic School of Navigation, which specialised in cartography, astronomy and ship design.

The school was like a magnet to the best brains in Europe concerned with the nautical sciences. Under Henry's patronage, a community of brilliant scholars came here to teach, study, accumulate and correlate nautical knowledge as it was brought back by captains of successive voyages who had journeyed to previously unknown territories.

Many other famous mariners and explorers have also passed this way, including Christopher Columbus, Lord Nelson and Sir Francis Drake, who in the course of harassing supply lines to the Spanish Armada, captured and wrecked the fortifications around Sagres.

Today, the village has grown from a single street to a cliff top sprawl of houses and shops, as well as several good restaurants. It is a busy fishing port and a popular venue for Algarve anglers.