The Fort Nossa Senhora da Queimada ( pt, Forte de Nossa Senhora da Queimada) also knows as Fort of Pessegueiro ( pt, Forte do Pessegueiro) is a fort situated along the coast of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Porto Covo
Porto Covo is one of the two civil parishes in the municipality of Sines, located along the western Alentejo coast of Portugal, about south of Lisbon. The population in 2011 was 1,038,[municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...]
of
Sines
Sines () is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The municipality, divided into two parishes, has around 14,214 inhabitants (2021) in an area of . Sines holds an important oil refinery and several petrochemical industries. It is also a popular ...
, in the southern
Alentejo
Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo'').
Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alent ...
of
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, across from the
island of the same name.
History
![Fortaleza do Pessegueiro](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Fortaleza_do_Pessegueiro.jpg)
In 1588, with the approval of Cardinal Alberto, the Vice-Regal representative,
Filippo Terzi
Filippo Terzi (1520–1597) was an Italian military and civil architect and engineer, born in Bologna, who went to Lisbon in 1577 and the following year joined the disastrous military expedition to Morocco where he was taken prisoner at the Battle ...
initiated construction of the ''Fort of Nossa Senhora da Queimada'', part of a project that also included the building of an artificial port to link the island of Pessegueiro to the mainland.
Alexandre Massay took Terzi's place in 1590, when construction of the ''Fort of Santo Alberto'' (a project which had been proposed two years previously), began on Pessegueiro.
[
The public works were interrupted in 1598, when Massay was transferred to Vila Nova de Milfontes, where he began building a defensive fort along the sandbar of Mira River.][ The project was restarted five years later.][ Between 1661 and 1690, the fort went through several phases of construction with long pauses before it was eventually completed during the reign of King Peter II near the end of the 17th century, while its twin, the ''Fort of Santo Alberto'', as well as the artificial port, remained incomplete.][
The final layout of the fort, which originally had been designed in the ]Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...
style, was simplified as a rectangle, suggesting to some historians that the later version was designed by Captain João Rodrigues Mouro.[Augusto Cabrita & Julio Gil (1986), p.283] In 1755, the famous Lisbon earthquake resulted in damage to the chapel and the batteries situated over the casemates.[ Between 1877 and 1942, the fort was occupied by a contingent of the ]Fiscal Guard
, mottotranslated = For the Motherland and for the Law
, formedyear = 1885
, formedmonthday = September 17
, preceding1 = Barrier guards ({{italic correction, {{lang, pt, Guardas barreiras )
, dissolved = 1993
, superseding ...
(''Guarda Fiscal'').[
Following its abandonment, a project was conceived in 1962 to convert the fort into a hostel, but was never approved or initiated.][ On 18 July 1957, a decree classified the Fort of Pessegueiro, including the island of the same name, as a national heritage; this classification was clarified by a new decree on 21 December 1974.][
Between 1983 and 1985, repairs were made to the exterior parapets of the left bastion and central zone (the former port entrance) by the ''Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais'' (DGEMN).][ Ruined sections were reconstructed and areas in risk of damage along the exterior walls were reinforced.][
]
Architecture
The Fort of Pessegueiro is situated along the Atlantic maritime coast, and dominates the beach facing the Fort of Santo Alberto on the island of Pessegueiro.[ It consists of a star-shaped polygon with two triangular bastions oriented toward land and a polygonal battery towards the beach;][ these are encircled by relatively low walls.][ The interior of the fort is built on a "U"-shaped plan, and stepped in terraces. The thick masonry walls, constructed using stone wedges, align with the slope and are topped by a semi-circular railing above the surrounding torus. There are traces of a circular ]bartizan
A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the ...
in the middle of the wall facing the sea.[ A main gate is situated in the middle of wall on the land side, accessed by a wooden bridge crossing a moat.][ The fort also has vaulted casemates and bunkers with chimneys enclosed by the walls. The Hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Queimada, which has a vaulted ceiling, lies at the extreme north end of the fort.][
]
References
Notes
Sources
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{{Bastion forts in Portugal, state=collapsed
Pessegueiro
Fort Pessegueiro
Buildings and structures in Sines
Coastal fortifications in Portugal