Cascais coast: from the Citadel to Hell's Mouth: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Summer houses, a lighthouse museum and the sea cliffs of Cascais
Walking west along the coast you move from the Citadel to the summer houses built nearby, to a fort that turned into a lighthouse, and on to the cliffs where the sea comes crashing in.
The stops
King John II began a tower here in 1488, and the Fortress of Our Lady of Light, begun in 1594, took it in as one of three bastions of a triangular fort. By 1870 the Citadel was no longer needed for defense, and King Luís I turned the governor's house into a holiday home where the royal family spent September until the assassination of Carlos I in 1908. In 1878 the Citadel received the first electric lights in Portugal.
Photo: PSVelasco — CC BY-SA 4.0 Jorge O'Neill, a Portuguese aristocrat of distant Irish descent, had this summer house built, and its overall impression is of a medieval castle, with Irish references throughout, including a Shamrock Room. The base of its tower juts into a small cove. In 1910 it was sold to the first Count of Castro Guimarães, who left the house and its garden to the state when he died in 1927 and asked that it become a museum; for many years it was the only museum in Cascais.
Photo: Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 This house was designed in 1890 and belonged to Bernardo Pinheiro Correia de Melo, the first Count of Arnoso and private secretary to King Carlos. Locals called it the Minho house because it resembles buildings in the northern province of Minho, where he was born. It hosted dinners of the Vencidos da Vida, an intellectual group that included the novelists Eça de Queirós and Ramalho Ortigão, and Eça de Queirós often stayed here.
Photo: Roundtheworld — CC BY-SA 4.0 Jorge O'Neill, who had built the castle-like house you just passed, commissioned this one as a wedding present for his daughter. It was designed by Raul Lino, who was told to use only materials found in Portugal, and its design leans on Moorish building, with horseshoe arches linking the central rooms. Inside is a rich collection of tiles and paintings, mostly from the Portuguese Baroque, including a chapel with tile scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary.
Photo: Jorge Franganillo — CC BY 2.0 This lighthouse stands in the grounds of Santa Marta Fort, probably built in the 1640s to keep enemies out of Cascais Bay. In 1864 the fort was judged no longer needed for defense, and a lighthouse was built there instead, with the light first operating in 1867. The tower was raised by 8 m in 1936 because new buildings were blocking its light, and the fort now houses a lighthouse museum that opened in July 2007.
Photo: Jaimrsilva — CC BY-SA 4.0 Boca do Inferno means Hell's Mouth, a chasm in the seaside cliffs where seawater reaches the deep bottom and strikes the rocky walls. A 13-second British film from 1896, A Sea Cave Near Lisbon, looks out through this cave as waves roll in and break on the rocks, and it is described as the first cinematic depiction of a cave.
Photo: Beatriznog10 — CC BY-SA 3.0
Hear the full story as you walk, or create your own walk, in the Alleytale app.