Cape St. Vincent

Overview

Cape St Vincent is the south-western tip of Europe, a headland of cliffs rising 75 m sheer from the Atlantic 6 km west of Sagres, with one of the most powerful lighthouses on the continent standing on the ruins of a Franciscan convent; the Greeks dedicated a temple to Heracles here, the Romans called it the Sacred Promontory, Strabo the end of the known world, and the body of the martyr St Vincent was said to have come ashore at its foot, guarded by ravens.

It is the end of the E9 coastal path that begins 5,000 km away in Estonia, a bird cliff of Bonelli’s eagles, peregrines and storks, the site of eleven naval battles, and a place where the wind seldom drops; the lighthouse has a small museum and the cliffs a car park, a fence and the last bratwurst stand in Europe.

Visiting

The lighthouse of 1846, 24 m high, was built over the 16th-century convent; its two 1,000-watt lamps carry 60 km and guard one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The keepers’ courtyard is open, with a small museum and a café, and the statues of St Vincent and St Francis Xavier that stood here are now in the church of Nossa Senhora da Graça in the Sagres fortress 3 km away.

The cliffs are the visit. Walk along the fenced edge either side of the lighthouse for the drop, the sea stacks and the birds; in autumn the cape is a raptor migration watchpoint, and the Sagres birdwatching festival is held in October. Fog is common and the climate barely changes through the year.

History

Standing stones show the cape was sacred in the Neolithic; the Greeks, who called the country Ophiussa, the land of serpents, and the Romans revered it, and common people believed the sun sank hissing into the sea here at the edge of the world. The shrine over Vincent’s grave, called the Church of the Raven by the Arab geographer al-Idrisi, drew Mozarab pilgrims until Afonso Henriques had the relics dug up in 1173 and shipped to Lisbon, still with the ravens, a scene on the city’s coat of arms. Henry the Navigator’s Vila do Infante near by, the convent and everything else fell in the earthquake of 1755, and the friars who kept the shrine left in 1834.

The waters off the cape have seen more sea battles than any other Portuguese headland, from the Castilian victory of 1337 to Jervis and Nelson’s defeat of the Spanish fleet in 1797 and the Liberal fleet’s victory over the Miguelites in 1833.

Tips

• Sunset is the ritual, with a car park full of camper vans and a crowd along the fence; arrive an hour early for a place and bring a windproof layer.
• The bratwurst van by the car park has been there for decades and is the only food; Sagres is 6 km back.
• Fishermen stand on the cliff edges with 30 m lines; do not copy them, and keep dogs and children inside the fence.
• The fortress at Sagres and the beaches of Beliche and Tonel on the road between are the rest of the day.

Nearby

• Fortaleza de Sagres: 6 km east.
• Praia do Beliche: 3 km, on the road to Sagres.
• Sagres village: 6 km.
• Costa Vicentina and the west coast beaches: north.