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Cape St Vincent (Portuguese: Cabo de São Vicente) is a course in the Portuguese town of Sagres in the Algarve.
This course is the most south-west Europe. A lighthouse and a monastery were built there. With a few cables is the fortress of Sagres.
Several naval battles took place off Cape, including that of 1797 between Spain and Great Britain.

Cape St. Vincent was already sacred ground in Neolithic times, as standing menhirs 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 fourth-century martyred Iberian priest 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 ravens. 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 monks stayed on until 1834, when all monasteries were disbanded in Portugal.

regards

BrAlm .