Santa Catarina's Fort

The need to defend the river and the riverside populations on the banks of the Arade, against the incursions of Corsican and piracy, meant that, in 1621, the Italian engineer Alexandre Massai, in the service of the Portuguese crown, was tasked with carrying out a study on the defensive hypotheses of the Arade River. From one of his projects and during the Spanish rule of Filipe III, in the 17th century, the fortress was built between 1631 and 1640, at the top of the cliff, at the tip of Praia da Rocha, on the Santa Catarina site, which offered good conditions for the defense of the entrance to the river bar, the urban agglomerations of Portimão to Silves, against the incursions of piracy and frequent coastal looting actions. The construction included a moat and drawbridge in front of the northern entrance, of which there are no traces left today.