HomeStream
News & more!Escapes
My trip reviewsGallery
My travel photosPlanning
Trip planningGuides
Destination guides
My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Cascais Small, But Beautiful Cascais Nossa Senhora [...]
Nossa Senhora da Luz Fortress
Portugal is famous for its fortresses and the Lisbon area is one of the best places for visiting such establishments.
Cascais is home to one of the biggest ones - the Nossa Senhora da Luz Fortress - which is one of the jewels of Portuguese military architecture.
The Nossa Senhora da Luz Fortress overlooks and guards the Atlantic entrance to Lisbon through the Rio Tejo's wide mouth.
The citadel was built in the late 1600's and it is in fact, one of Portugal's largest fortifications.
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
In order to defend Lisbon from threats by French and English troops, as well as against pirates, a series of fortresses were constructed between the 15th and 17th centuries - strategically, at the mouth of Rio Tejo (River Tagus), where ships enter to reach Lisbon.
A corner turret
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
In 1871, some of the buildings found inside the citadel were transformed into a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family.
Cascais is a beloved destination of the Portuguese elites, even today - many buy property in the area for leisure purposes.
Near the entrance
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
This fortress basically has a rectangular shape. More or less... so, it's not perfectly symmetrical.
The turrets are sharper in order for better self-protection. Round turrets would have been more vulnerable and would have created "dead zones" where it would have been impossible or, very hard to fire from inside the fort.
Strange spot for a gas station (inside the fortress), but this sure is scenic!
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
The rectangular-shaped fortresses with "sharp" turrets and flat walls are typical to Portugal and Spain. Although, according to my sources - they first appeared in Italy.
The Nossa Senhora da Luz fortress reminded me of Funchal's São João Baptista do Pico Fortress, which I had visited back in 2008.
A gigantic binocular...
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
Locally, the Nossa Senhora da Luz Fortress is called simply "Citadela" or "Citadel"..
The dwelling is home to the Citadela Art District, perhaps that's the reason why I came across a huge binocular (statue) in the middle of a square.
The material? It was made from hollow plastic. Very light. It felt empty inside.
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
I walked a bit around to explore the interiors, to admire and contemplate parts of the architecture from close range.
You can't help noticing a slight contrast between old and new, while wandering inside the fort.
As shown higher, there is even a gas station (an old one) behind the walls. I don't know if it's functional.
Contrast of shapes and colours
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
The burning sunlight was very strong, there were barely a few visitors curious to get inside.
Restaurants, places for eating and drinking...
But the Sun was strong and it just didn't feel right to sit down and eat/drink in here. It all looked great, but felt a bit deserted..
A quiet place under the hot hot Sun
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
I had to rush it, because I had to fly out of Lisbon later that night. So, I left the fortress and continued exploring it from the outside, walked towards the marina.
This was I was able to see more of the exterior walls.
From the outside...
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
I must mention that there is a beautiful (and expensive) luxury hotel inside the walls of the Citadel.
It's called Pousada de Cascais Cidadela Historic Hotel. Quite a long name, indeed...
For a night in August they showed prices generally above 350 EUR, but many above 400-450 EUR for rooms. Suites are from 500+ EUR, all the way to more than 5,000 EUR.
You can see a partly separate section of the fortress
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
Above you can see that part of the fortress appears as a semi-separate dwelling. In fact, the fortress' southeastern turret is missing. Instead, there is a mini-fortress of triangular shape there.
This mini fortress is connected to the large one. Essentially, instead of that particular turret, they built an entire structure and connected it with the main structure with bridges.
For a digitally-recreated image of the fort and a map showing its exact location see this.
When viewed from the marina
View Photo Gallery for more travel photos
About the Author:
Escape Hunter, the young solo traveler in his early 30's explores the World driven by curiosity, thirst for adventure, deep passion for beauty, love for freedom and diversity.
With a nuanced, even humorous approach to travel, an obsession for art and design, Escape Hunter prefers to travel slowly, in order to learn and "soak up" the local atmosphere...
Comments
As "Escape Hunter" - the curious incognito traveler with an insatiable drive to explore, I embark on slow and deep travels around
our beautiful World.
Join me and I will show you exciting destinations
"from within", through my
"escape" trips!
Travel Slang Dictionary
Guide to my personal travel slang vocabulary, which seasons my content...
The first good view of the forstress from close