Cape St. Vincent
Encyclopedia
Cape St. Vincent next to the Sagres Point, on the so-called Costa Vicentina (Vincentine Coast), is a headland
in the municipality
of Sagres
, in the Algarve, southern Portugal
.
in Estonia
.
Approximately six kilometers from the village of Sagres, the cape is a landmark for a ship traveling to or from the Mediterranean. The cliffs rise nearly vertically from the Atlantic to a height of 75 meters.
The cape is a site of exuberant marine life and a high concentration of birds nesting on the cliffs, such as the rare Bonelli's eagle
, peregrine falcon
s, kites
, rock thrush
es, rock pigeon
s, stork
s and herons
.
Cape St. Vincent was already sacred ground in Neolithic
times, as standing menhir
s in the neighborhood attest. The ancient Greeks
called it Ophiussa
(Land of Serpents
), inhabited by the Oestriminis
and dedicated here a temple to Heracles
. The Romans
called it Promontorium Sacrum (or Holy Promontory). They considered it a magical place where the sunset was much larger than anywhere else. They believed the sun sank here hissing into the ocean, marking the edge of their world.
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. A shrine was erected over his grave; according to the Arab geographer
Al-Idrisi, it was always guarded by raven
s and is therefore named by him كنيسة الغراب (Kanīsah al-Ghurāb, meaning "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 Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The Franciscan
friar
s who cared for the shrine stayed on until 1834, when all monasteries were disbanded in Portugal.
Several naval battles were fought in the vicinity of this cape:
The present lighthouse was built over the ruins of a 16th century Franciscan
convent in 1846. The statues of St. Vincent
and St. Francis Xavier
had been moved to the nearby church of Nossa Senhora da Graça on Point Sagres.
This lighthouse, guarding one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, is among the most powerful in Europe (the most powerful being on the French island of Ushant, off the coast of Brittany); its two 1000 W lamps can be seen as far as 60 kilometers away.
of magnitude 5.8 on the Richter scale struck about 160 kilometers east of the cape.
Headlands and bays
Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...
in the municipality
Municipalities of Portugal
In Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country.Portugal has an entirely separate system of cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities, but often do not have the same boundaries, even if built-up is continuous...
of Sagres
Sagres
Sagres Point , is a windswept shelf-like promontory located in the southwest Algarve region of southern Portugal. Only 4 km to the west and 3 km to the north lies Cape St. Vincent which is usually taken as the southwesternmost tip of Europe. The vicinity of Sagres Point and Cape St...
, in the Algarve, southern Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
Description
This cape is the southwesternmost point in Portugal. It forms the southwestern end of the E9 European Coastal Path, which runs for 5000 km (3,106.9 mi) to Narva-JõesuuNarva-Jõesuu
Narva-Jõesuu is a town in Ida-Viru County, Estonia, located on the country's northern Baltic Sea coast near the Russian border. The name of the town in Estonian and Russian means "mouth of the Narva River"....
in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
.
Approximately six kilometers from the village of Sagres, the cape is a landmark for a ship traveling to or from the Mediterranean. The cliffs rise nearly vertically from the Atlantic to a height of 75 meters.
The cape is a site of exuberant marine life and a high concentration of birds nesting on the cliffs, such as the rare Bonelli's eagle
Bonelli's Eagle
The Bonelli's Eagle is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.It breeds in southern Europe, Africa both north and south of the Sahara Desert and across southern Asia to Indonesia...
, peregrine falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...
s, kites
Kite (bird)
Kites are raptors with long wings and weak legs which spend a great deal of time soaring. Most feed mainly on carrion but some take various amounts of live prey.They are birds of prey which, along with hawks and eagles, are from the family Accipitridae....
, rock thrush
Rock thrush
The rock thrushes, Monticola, are a genus of chats, medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous songbirds. They were in former times placed in the thrush family Turdidae but actually belong in the closely related Muscicapidae...
es, rock pigeon
Rock Pigeon
The Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae . In common usage, this bird is often simply referred to as the "pigeon"....
s, stork
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the biological order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families....
s and herons
Ardea (genus)
Ardea is a genus of herons. Linnaeus named this genus as the Great Herons, referring to the generally large size of these birds, typically 80–100 cm or more in length....
.
History
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
times, as standing menhir
Menhir
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...
s in the neighborhood attest. The ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
called it Ophiussa
Ophiussa
Ophiussa, also spelled Ophiusa, is the ancient name given by the ancient Greeks to what is now Portuguese territory near the mouth of the river Tagus...
(Land of Serpents
Serpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
), inhabited by the Oestriminis
Oestriminis
In Latin poetry Oestreminis was a name given to the territory of what is today modern Portugal, comparable to Finis terrae, the "end of the earth" from a Mediterranean perspective...
and dedicated here a temple to Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. The Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
called it Promontorium Sacrum (or Holy Promontory). They considered it a magical place where the sunset was much larger than anywhere else. They believed the sun sank here hissing into the ocean, marking the edge of their world.
According to legend, the name of this cape is linked to the story of a martyred fourth-century Iberian deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
St. Vincent
Vincent of Saragossa
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon, is the patron saint of Lisbon. His feast day is 22 January in the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion and 11 November in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
whose body was brought ashore here. A shrine was erected over his grave; according to the Arab geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
Al-Idrisi, it was always guarded by raven
Raven
Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied...
s and is therefore named by him كنيسة الغراب (Kanīsah al-Ghurāb, meaning "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
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, still accompanied by the ravens. This transfer of the relics is depicted on the coat of arms of Lisbon
Coat of arms of Lisbon
The Coat of arms of Lisbon is composed of a golden shield with a black silver lined sail ship on a sea of seven wavy stripes green and silver. At both ends of the ship, two ravens, each pointing to the center of the shield...
.
The area around the cape was plundered several times by pirates from France and Holland and, in 1587, by Sir Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
. All existing buildings—including the Vila do Infante of Henry the Navigator--fell into ruins because of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s who cared for the shrine stayed on until 1834, when all monasteries were disbanded in Portugal.
Several naval battles were fought in the vicinity of this cape:
- The French Admiral Anne Hilarion de TourvilleAnne Hilarion de TourvilleAnne Hilarion de Costentin, comte de Tourville was a French naval commander who served under King Louis XIV. He was made Marshal of France in 1693.-Military career:...
defeated a large Anglo-Dutch naval fleet commanded by George RookeGeorge RookeAdmiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke was an English naval commander. He is known for his service in the wars against France and particularly remembered today for his victory at Vigo Bay and for capturing Gibraltar for the British in 1704.-Early life:Rooke was born at St Lawrence, near Canterbury...
escorting a convoy of between 400 and 500 English and Dutch merchant ships on 27 June 1693. The "Smyrna fleet" disaster, as it came to be known, saw ninety-four of the richly-laden merchant ships either captured or sunk; this event led to the dismissal of two English admirals whose convoy escort had turned back off UshantUshantUshant is an island at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany and is in the traditional region of Bro-Leon. Administratively, Ushant is a commune in the Finistère department...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. - In 1780, this cape was the site of the Battle of Cape St. VincentBattle of Cape St. Vincent (1780)The naval Battle of Cape St Vincent, took place off the coast of Portugal on 16 January 1780 during the American War of Independence. A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara. The battle is sometimes referred to as the Moonlight Battle,...
(between BritainKingdom of Great BritainThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
and SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
). - Admiral JervisJohn Jervis, 1st Earl of St VincentAdmiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...
with Commodore NelsonHoratio Nelson, 1st Viscount NelsonHoratio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
defeated the Spanish fleet in 1797 at a second Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February 1797. - In 1833, a Loyalist Portuguese fleet defeated the Miguelites during Portugal's Liberal WarsLiberal WarsThe Liberal Wars, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, the War of the Two Brothers, or Miguelite War, was a war between progressive constitutionalists and authoritarian absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 1828 to 1834...
.
Lighthouse
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
convent in 1846. The statues of St. Vincent
Vincent of Saragossa
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon, is the patron saint of Lisbon. His feast day is 22 January in the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion and 11 November in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
and St. Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534...
had been moved to the nearby church of Nossa Senhora da Graça on Point Sagres.
This lighthouse, guarding one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, is among the most powerful in Europe (the most powerful being on the French island of Ushant, off the coast of Brittany); its two 1000 W lamps can be seen as far as 60 kilometers away.
2007 earthquake
On February 12, 2007, an earthquake2007 Iberian Peninsula earthquake
The Iberian Peninsula earthquake happened at 11:23 a.m. Central European time on February 12, 2007 with an epicentre at 160 km southwest of Cabo de São Vicente, Portugal...
of magnitude 5.8 on the Richter scale struck about 160 kilometers east of the cape.