One day we had a crazy idea to walk along the Tagus shore from Lisbon Belem to Cascais. As a result, the hike took us most of the day and was absolutely spectacular. No doubt we would definitely repeat it. In the end, however, after more than 20 kilometres, we were sunburned, dead tired and just wanted to take a taxi home. But when we saw the castle-like fortress on the horizon whilst approaching Cascais, we had to visit – we just couldn’t help it.
Forte de Santo António da Barra
The Fortecame to be a star-shaped fortress, dating back to 16th century, when King Philip I decided to strengthen the defence system along the Tagus river. Later, became famous because it was a summer residence of the António de Oliveira Salazar, during the dictatorship period.
From interesting facts: Salazar happened to have had an accident during one of his stays in the fortress. He fell out of a chair and suffered a cerebral bleed. This accident led to the end of his career as the Prime Minister.
To sum up, The fort was opened to the public in 2018, so we were very lucky to see it at the beginning of 2019. There are many installations with an explanation of the history of the Fort , its function and display and how it was used by Antonio Salazar. It was very intriguing to discover the fortress and to take those extra thousands of steps to explore it.
