Monuments

A Renaissance church on the Top of the World´s Discovery Cape.

When you enter the Sagres Fortress complex, strategically located on a promontory from where you can gaze over Atlantic-Mediterranean maritime navigation, you first enter a vaulted corridor that gives access to the Armas Plaza. To the back of the Plaza, on the right, is a temple dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, which is thought to have been built on the site of the earlier Church of Santa Maria, which existed in the 15th century and was linked to Infante D. Henrique.

Renaissance influence is evident in the portal of the frontispiece. The longitudinal floor-plan is made up of a vaulted nave and chancel, with a semi-spherical dome. The gilded altarpiece, in Baroque style, was brought in 1997 from the chapel of Santa Catarina at the Belixe fort, to house the image of the patron saint of the area. The altar facade has a renaissance tile panel with scenes linked to the Eucharist, on which you can see trees, birds, elephants and antelopes. In the side niches there are statues of St. Vincent and St. Francis.

In addition to the Church of Our Lady of Grace - whose pilgrimage takes place annually on August 15 - the set of structures built inside the Armas Plaza includes the Henriquina cistern, the «correnteza » (the old buildings of the original "Infante’s Village", later converted into the house of the military governors, three of whom are buried in the church), the so-called "Compass Rose", the old warehouse and stables (converted into the present auditorium) and a set of gun batteries equipped with cannons, set out around the entire promontory.

After being renovated following the earthquake of 1755, the Fortress of Sagres lost its  military function at the beginning of the 20th century and has undergone restoration in the decade of 1960, within the context of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the death of the Infante Dom Henrique, and during the decade of 1990 it was the target of another regeneration.