Fort of Santo Inácio (Tamandaré)

About this place

Tamandaré bay in southern Pernambuco was reckoned one of the best anchorages in the captaincy, sheltering large ships from every wind, and it became a battleground during the Dutch occupation of Brazil in the seventeenth century: Portuguese troops landed here in 1645, and a small fort was built, taken by the Dutch and later recovered. João Fernandes Vieira rebuilt the fort in 1677, further works were completed in 1691, and its small chapel to Saint Ignatius was added in 1780. From 1808 Governor Caetano Pinto de Miranda Montenegro rebuilt it as a square with pentagonal bastions at the corners in the Vauban style, and it later served as a prison for political detainees on their way to the capital or to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. The fort has held the Tamandaré lighthouse since 1902 and has been under the Brazilian Navy since 1978. After restoration works inaugurated in 2017 it became a tourist and cultural centre with a small museum and sea views, close to the beaches of Tamandaré and Carneiros.