Pessegueiro Island a small island located near Porto Covo

Porto Covo

Porto Covo is one of the two civil parishes in the municipality of Sines. It is located in the western coast of Portugal, about south of Lisbon and is well known for its beaches...

 in the Municipality of Sines

Sines, Portugal

Sines is a coastal municipality in the district of Setúbal, in the Alentejo Litoral region of the Portuguese Alentejo. Its population in 2011 was over 14260 residents, with a total area of 203.3 km², concentrated on the municipal seat of Sines.-History:...

, on the western coast of 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...

. The island and the adjacent coast are part of Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park

Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park

Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park is a natural park in the Alentejo Region of south-central Portugal.It is one of the 30 Natural Park areas which are officially under Portuguese protection in the country.-see also:...

.

History

The island has a history of occupation going back to the Carthaginians

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

  before the Second Punic War

Second Punic War

The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...

 (218-202 BCE). At the time of Roman conquest of Hispania, the island hosted a small fish processing

Fish processing

The term fish processing refers to the processes associated with fish and fish products between the time fish are caught or harvested, and the time the final product is delivered to the customer...

 centre, as evidenced by recently discovered remains of salt tanks. To help defend against privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

s, the natural anchorage was extended at the time of the Iberian Union

Iberian Union

The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...

 with an artificial rock barrier connecting the island of Pessegueiro to the coastline.

In 1590 construction began on Forte de Santo Alberto. The fort occupied a dominant position on the island, with the purpose of providing military support to a fort on the mainland. Work on the project was halted in 1598 in order to construct the Fort of Vila Nova de Milfontes.

The Legend of Our Lady of Queimada

According to tradition, in the middle of the 18th century, Barbary pirates arriving on the island from Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 and Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 encountered a Christian hermit

Hermit

A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...

 who was maintaining a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 dedicated to the Virgin Mary

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

. The pirates killed the monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

, looted the chapel and threw her statue into the flames.

Later the inhabitants of Porto Covo buried the Christian hermit but could not at first find the sacred image. Deciding to search the entire island, they finally found the statue within a burned bush but unharmed by the fire. The statue was removed to the mainland, 1 kilometre from the island, where the new chapel, known as Capela de Nossa Senhora da Queimada ("Chapel of the Burned Virgin") is now a pilgrimage site.