Fortress of Sagres

There at the tip of a wind-swept promontory, beneath a low grey sky and above the seething waves, sat the old fortress of Sagres. Hard by, at the Cabo de São Vicente, the old continent of Europe crumbles down its southwesternmost point into the Atlantic.

It was here, at this desolate land's end, that Henry the Navigator founded his nautical academy. An academy that would hone the maritime skills of men such as Columbus, Dias and de Gama. Here the caravel was invented, the nau perfected, astronomical calculations refined and sea charts plotted, all of which 'opened the way for worldwide explorations in the Great Age of Discovery' (as the commemorative American plaque put it).

Within the squat defensive walls, a vast wind rose of stone still stands, together with the small church of Nossa Senhora da Graça and a replica of the old padrões dos descobrimentos – stone markers inscribed with the arms of the Infante to stake a claim over the far-flung new-found lands of empire.