The cliffs
Dropping into the ocean.
Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · LucT — CC BY-SA 3.0 · LucT — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0
Cape St. Vincent is a headland in the municipality of Vila do Bispo in the Algarve, southern Portugal. It is the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe, about 5 km west of the town of Sagres in a straight line. The cape was already sacred ground in Neolithic times, as standing stones in the area show. The Romans called it the Promontorium Sacrum, the Holy Promontory, and the geographer Strabo described it as the western tip of the known world, where people believed the sun sank into the ocean at the edge of their world. The Arab geographer al-Idrisi recorded it as the Church of the Raven, and its old buildings fell into ruin in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Here the land ends in high cliffs that drop straight into the Atlantic, with waves pounding at their foot. A 24 m lighthouse, built in 1846 over the ruins of a 16th-century convent and visible up to 60 km away, stands at the tip of the cape, surrounded by a bare, windswept rocky plateau, with the rugged coast stretching away on both sides. Visitors come to watch the sunset from the cliff edge, the busiest time of day, and walk around the lighthouse taking pictures of the coast. The wind is strong on most days and it feels cooler than in the nearby towns, so bring a jacket and keep well back from the cliff edge.
Dropping into the ocean.
At the tip of the cape.
At the edge of Europe.
Cabo de São Vicente, Vila do Bispo, Algarve, Portugal
At sunset, though it is the busiest time.
A jacket; the wind is strong.