The village of Sagres that was abandoned and in ruins because of  pirates raids, was  rebuilt and repopulated.

This rebuilding, by the Infante, obeyed some essential dictates:

- the need that the vessels of the time had to take refuge from the winds in the neighboring coves, waiting for favorable winds for navigation.
- the logistics requirements (boats, groceries, sailors) of the first Age of Discovery  phase.
- the convenience of maritime traffic control, being right of passage of vessels crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, and vice versa.
- security and isolation necessary for the processing of information collected at the beginning of the draft Portuguese expansion stretching across North Africa.
Fortification of the tip of the promontory was determined by its location and shape, enjoying the cliff as a natural defense in three of its four sides, closely linked to its excellent strategic possibilities that integrate with the aforementioned dictates.

Thus, Sagres the first half of the fourteenth century became the core of the Portuguese maritime expansion, receiving scholars and sailors of all nationalities, gathered around the infant in Sagres School. This story was challenged by Luis de Albuquerque, “Doubts and Certainties in the history of the Portuguese Discoveries” (Lisbon, 1990, pages 15-27), which demonstrated that it was a myth.

After the death of Prince Henry (1460),  the axis of expansion was moved to Lisbon, and Sangres lost importance. As a result the distance between the Vila do Infante and the Bishop’s Village, where celebrated religious services, King Manuel (1495-1521) created of the parish of Sagres and orderer the building of the local church (1512).

Later, in 1573, King Sebastian (1568-1578) created two bastions at the extremes of the existing wall, crucial elements in the military architecture after the advent of artillery, strategically placed to optimizes the crossfire.

It features a simple quadrangular single nave with small windows isolated on the walls and shot in barrel vault. The headboard with the attached sacristy, also features square plan and is surmounted by a hemispherical dome. The main facade is marked by the entry door with lintel and gable roof. The bell tower, built in the location of the ancient ossuary of the cemetery, is accessed through a staircase on the east side.

Here can be found, since 1997, the altarpiece in the Baroque style of the Chapel of St. Catherine of Belixe Fort.

At the steep cliff, constantly windswept, the visitor enjoys a stunning panoramic along the coast, especially in the coves of Sagres, Cabo San Vicente (extreme southwest of Europe) and the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.

The fortification  and its surroundings, is integrated in the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina, offers the possibility of a close look at the natural heritage of the coast, especially the flora, housing some of the most representative species of the region as, eg “Allium ampeloprasum” (leek-mad), “Armeria welwitschii” (herb-divine), “Asteriscus maritimus” (pampilho-sea), “Crithmum maritimum” (perrexil-fish), “Juniperus turbinata” (Zimbreiro), “Malva sylvestris” (mauve), “Pancratium maritimum” (Narcissus-the-sand), “Spartium junceum” (esparto).

In fact, the Cape St. Vincent is further west, but to be further north, the Strabo map of the Iberian Peninsula is rotated in a clockwise direction, leaving the Pyrenees in a north-south line, and may have been taken as being more west. The westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula and continental Europe is the Cabo da Roca, west of Sintra; the southernmost is the Punta de Tarifa, Andalusia.

Strabo says Artemidorus mentions three islands to protect docking sites that point. No part of Cape St Vincent matches this description, but on the eastern side of Ponta de Sagres there is a port (now the modern port of Sagres) with ancient structures protected by four small islets in a row (already in Cove Martinhal, so-called islets Martinhal). Strabo had stated that ship shape.

Strabo also states that Artemidorus reported that there were no temples in the sacred promontory, only stones. According to the customs, swinging stones should be rotated by visitors, one poured libation, and rotated stones to their original positions. The sacrifices were not allowed, nor the overnight stay in place, asserting that it was when the gods came. There was no water, and had to be brought by visitors.

Prince Henry employed cartographers, such as Jehuda Cresques, who created Mauritania coast maps. Hired  Jaime de Mallorca, a well known cartographer so that the masters might have the best information and nautical equipment available. This led to the legend of the Naval School of Sagres (although a “school” means here a study group, not a building).

There has never been a center of navigation sciences or an observatory. The center of the expeditions was Lagos, further east. Only later would leave the shipping lanes of Bethlehem, west of Lisbon.

Plaque in honor of Prince Henry, offered by the US Navy and placed in the Sagres Fortress.

It was a time of important discoveries: the mapping was made more precise through new measure instruments with improved versions of the astrolabe and sundial, the maps were updated and improved also designed a revolutionary type of vessel, the caravel.

Prince Henry built a chapel near his home in 1459 for would be spending more time in or near Sagres the following years.

He died in Sagres on November 13, 1460.

The precise location of the navigation school of Prince Henry (in Lagos?) Is unknown (it’s a popular belief that was destroyed in the earthquake of 1755).

The population in 2011 was 1,909,  in an area of 34.37 km².

 It is historically connected to the early Portuguese Age of Discovery.

The name Sagres, follows from Sagrado (holy) owing to the important local religious practices and rituals that occurred during the pre-history of the nation. From here some of the Mediterranean peoples (including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans), venerated their divinities and which some believed, owing to the absence of a human settlement, was the gathering place for their gods. Christinas (Mozarabs) that lived in this zone, during the Muslim occupation, erected the Church of Corvo, where the mortal remains of the saint Vincent were deposited in the 8th century. The presence of martyr’s remains lead the Portuguese to refer to the site and the peninsula as the Cape of Saint Vincent.

The area has been intrinsically linked to the nautical school first developed by Prince Henry the Navigator, which was installed in the 15th century.^[3] Although born in the provincial city of Porto (1394), he would be connected with his life in the parish, until his death in 1460, being known as the Infante of Sagres.^[3] Although there existed a medieval settlement in this area (Terçanabal), all the land was donated on 27 October 1443 to Infante Henry. The prince was associated with the Military Order of Christ, Duke of Viseu, Master of Covilã and a man preoccupied with his signeurial holdings and defense of his faith. Henry obtained his wealth from the lands he held and the fisheries in the Algarve, and therefore preoccupied himself with needs of his workers, both materially and spiritually, and therefore invested in the founding of a village (later known as theVila do Infante) to assist the population.^[3] The fortified town was situated on the Ponta de Sagres, a strategic point dominated the coves of Mareta and Beliche. Henry’s controlled his material interests from his villa, located on the clifftops, and when he died on 13 November 1460, the Portuguese navigators and other services, had already reached Sierra Leon.

Sagres was created in 1519, through the division of the municipality of Vila do Bispo.

King Sebastian was known to have spent time in the parish, listening to music along the cliffs and the sea. A chronicle of the 16th century, referred to the young Kings stay at the Convent of São Vicente do Cabo, and later, locals recounted that King was enchanted by the landscape of Sagres.

In May 1587, Francis Drake (one of more notable adventurers and military officers in the Court of Elizabeth) disembarked 800 men who assaulted the fortress of Sagres. After two hours of intense combat, fortifications adjacent to the fortress were destroyed and its artillery was pillaged.

Until 1834, Sagres was an independent municipality, consisting of little more than 413 inhabitants.

The most common decorations in menhirs of Vila do Bispo municipality are:

(i) 3 or 4 sets of parallel wavy lines;
(ii) the targeted sets of ellipses;
(iii) non-threaded assemblies ellipses extending from the top to the bottom of the menir;
(iv) semi-ellipses sets that are organized around a cord on top of the menhir (see photo). It is not known its meaning.

A local tradition falls in the realm of legend episode of Castle conquest by the Christians:

Aware of the privileged position of the castle and the close watch kept by the Moors, Paio Peres Correia, some Portuguese dispatched scouts to test the waters and the habits of the population of the people, in order to outline his assault plan. In the field, they managed to entice a Moorish of rare beauty, Maria Aires, informed them that the practice of an ancient custom of the inhabitants of the region, to bathe on the beach of Mulberry at dawn on June 24.

Based on this information, the Paio arranged his men so that on the night of 23 to 24 that month, if conceal the neighboring valley to the castle, now known as Sancho valley, certainly in honor of the sovereign time, Sancho II of Portugal. Camouflaged with vegetation, waited for the movement of the Moors towards the beach in the early hours. As soon as it began, Christians, still covered in darkness, embarked on the final approach to the assault on the village and castle unguarded. At this time, a girl, the granddaughter of an old woman who had fallen behind in the village, seeing the unusual movement out of doors, ran to warn her grandmother that the bushes were walking. The old lady explained to her granddaughter the effects of the breeze on vegetation when surprise Christians burst through the doors, dominating the lady who also brought to the alarm, ringing a bell in the tower of the tank. Lords of the land, the Portuguese then raised the alarm, attracting supporters for a death trap inside the enclosure.

With the village won for the arms of Portugal, D. Paio, states that sensitized by the charms of the beautiful Maria Aires, spared his life and honor, making him build a house in the immediate vicinity of the town that even today, in his memory, is called Mareares.

In the first half of the fourteenth century, the temple was probably benefited at the expense of Mrs Vataça Lascaris, Byzantine grantee who held the award of Cacém Santiago between 1310 and 1336. In 1530, when commandery Alonso Peres Pantoja, the temple received a deep intervention. However, after a few centuries, the church turned out to be the subject of two new interventions: one that took place in 1704, in D. Pedro II, and another between 1796 and 1830, the latter due to the earthquake of 1755. The intervention changed the orientation of the church – the entry went on to make then the place where was the main chapel – and the dimensions that hitherto held.

In the late nineteenth century, specifically in 1895, the church was the scene of a fire, which caused some damage, being followed by another in 1912, which led to the transfer of the parish to the Mercy church. In 1933, Archdeacon Antonio Rebelo of the Angels, being precautious against future destruction and fires, sent renovate the interior – especially the chancel and side altars – and outside the church.

The exterior of the building stands out for its impressive late Baroque lines, directed by a top-down guidance, which favored the external marking of the three ships, and the busy pediment, strong scenic nature – with references to the attributes of Santiago Apostle. In the South side elevation, there is a Gothic portal of centuries XIII / XIV, known as Puerta del Sol, where there prevails a zoofitomórfica figuration.

Inside can be seen the Manueline vaults of the old chapel and the aisles or broken arches, with its hermetic Christian iconography. Alongside these elements, can also be seen the side altars of the seventeenth century the tiles and the famous Gothic embossed representing Santiago fighting the Moors, Century sculpture work XIV, most likely offered by Mrs Vataça Lascaris.

The church is classified as a National Monument since 1910. The General Directorate of National Buildings and Monuments has, in recent years, to benefit this church with successive works of conservation and restoration.

It was the desire to make known a secular estate, mingling with the history of the parish church, which led the City Council and the Diocese of Beja to join forces to organize the museum center Treasury of the Collegiate, which opened its doors to the public on 25 July 2002.

Here we can see, in addition to the shrine of the Holy Cross, works of art and a remarkable estate intended to serve mainly liturgical ceremonies.

Time: April to September from 10h00 to 12h30 and from 14h30 to 18h00 – October to March 10h00 to 12h30 and from 14h00 to 17h00.
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Easter, Christmas and New Year

Tel .: 269 810 276

Just 1.5 km from the city of Santiago de Cacém, the archaeological site of Miróbriga where runs a center for reception and interpretation is a visit not to be missed. These are the ruins, in excellent condition, a Roman settlement that would have been, according to studies, a sanctuary with the necessary support to pilgrims infrastructure: a thermal complex, housing and a hippodrome for the festivities.

Museum Hours of the Church of Santiago do Cacém:
April to September from 10h00 to 12h30 and from 14h30 to 18h00
October to March 10h00 to 12h30 and from 14h00 to 17h00.
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Easter, Christmas and New Year

Schedule Miróbriga Interpretation Center:
Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 12h30 and from 14h00 to 17h30;
Sunday: 9:00 to 12:00 and from 14h00 to 17h30.
Closed on Monday and public holidays from 1 January, Easter Sunday, May 1st and December 25th.

Source: Municipality of Santiago do Cacém site – Heritage

- See more at: http://www.rotavicentina.com/visita-historica-a-santiago-do-cacem/#sthash.dgy5N542.dpuf