Cape St. Vincent looks west and south to the open Atlantic Ocean and one can try to imagine what it would be like looking in both those directions not knowing what other than more ocean was out there. Every reason to consider it "lands end" - possibly frightening to many, a challenge to others like Prince Henry.
Because of its location in relationship to the rest of Europe and to the Mediterranean all European ships passing here used it as a marker of their location.
Not surprisingly, there are spectacular vistas. We arrived there approaching sunset so I captured some quite nice photos of the sun shining through the clouds as well as some views of the ocean and the cliffs.
According to legend, the name of this cape is linked to the story of a martyred fourth-century Iberian deacon St. Vincent whose body was brought ashore here. (According to our guide he actually died and was buried elsewhere then his remains were brought here for reasons that I don't recall. The ravens attached themselves to him at the original place and followed him to his new location.) A shrine was erected over his grave; according to the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi, it was always guarded by ravens and is therefore named by him "Kanīsah al-Ghurāb" (Church of the Raven). King Afonso Henriques (1139–1185) had the body of the saint exhumed in 1173 and brought it by ship to Lisbon, still accompanied by the ravens. This transfer of the relics is depicted on the coat of arms of Lisbon.
The area around the cape was plundered several times by pirates from France and Holland and, in 1587, by Sir Francis Drake. All existing buildings - including the Vila do Infante of Henry the Navigator - fell into ruins because of the earthquake of 1755. The Franciscan friars who cared for the shrine stayed on until 1834, when all monasteries were disbanded in Portugal.
This part of the Algarve, as you can appreciate from the photos of the cliffs, is quite high - possibly the highest part along the coast. As one goes east the height of the land above the ocean gradually diminishes until in the east near Tavira, one finds no cliffs at all. Rather, the coast line is almost at sea level as you will see in the posts following our trip to the east on Saturday, March 19.
The photo to the right is our guide, Irie, speaking with an interested tourist.
Our drive home, after a long and tiring day, was mostly after dark though we did stop before dark just east of Sagres for final photos - this one looks back to the west and shows, if you look carefully, the fortress of Prince Henry's "navigation academy" at Ponta de Sagres, in the distance. The beach on the bottom right is apparently one of our guide's favourite beach.
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