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Fort of São Bruno

Buildings and structures in Oeiras, PortugalCoastal fortifications in PortugalForts in PortugalNational monuments in Lisbon District
ForteSaoBruno1
ForteSaoBruno1

The Fort of São Bruno is situated on the estuary of the River Tagus in Caxias, Oeiras municipality, near Lisbon in Portugal. It was built in 1647 and became operational in 1649 as part of the construction of a line of forts to control access to Lisbon, which stretched from Cabo da Roca on the Atlantic coast to the Belém Tower near Lisbon. The fort is well preserved, following its original design, and is considered one of the most attractive examples of maritime military architecture on the Portuguese coast. It presently serves as the headquarters of the Associação Portuguesa dos Amigos dos Castelos (Portuguese association of friends of castles).

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fort of São Bruno (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fort of São Bruno
Passeio Marítimo Caxias - Cruz Quebrada, Oeiras e São Julião da Barra, Paço de Arcos e Caxias

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N 38.6979253 ° E -9.2748499 °
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Forte de São Bruno (Forte de São Bruno de Caxias)

Passeio Marítimo Caxias - Cruz Quebrada
2760-064 Oeiras e São Julião da Barra, Paço de Arcos e Caxias
Portugal
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Fort of King Luís I

The Fort of King Luís I (Forte D. Luís I), also referred to as the Fort of Caxias (Forte de Caxias) and the Fort-prison of Caxias (Forte-prisão de Caxias), is located in the parish of Caxias, in the municipality of Oeiras in the Lisbon district of Portugal. It presently functions as a prison. Built between 1879 and 1886 it was intended as one of a number of forts, known as the Campo Entrincheirado of Lisbon, that formed a defensive perimeter that followed the boundaries of Lisbon at the time. It consisted of two separate strongholds, the north and the south. Originally called the Fort of Caxias, it was renamed as the Fort of King Luís I in 1901 in honour of the king who died in 1889.The fort was first used as a prison in 1916 when a group of soldiers who mutinied were arrested. In 1917 it was used to house construction workers who had gone on strike and in the same year telegraph workers on strike were also held there. From 1935 the southern part of the fort was used by the Estado Novo dictatorship as a political prison, which included torture chambers, and this continued until Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, when its doors were opened on April 25, 1974. It was subsequently used briefly to detain right-wing politicians. The fort was transferred to Portugal’s Prison Service in December 1988.Although the fort was not generally used by the Estado Novo to accommodate the communist party’s top leaders, who were mainly held in the Peniche Fortress, it did witness a mass escape on 4 December 1961 when eight communist party members were able to escape in an armoured car, which they succeeded in smashing through the main gate. The driver had taken a long time gaining the confidence of the guards by convincing them that he had rejected communism and was now on their side. In this way he was able to gain access to the vehicle, which was normally used for President Salazar.

Directorate of Lighthouses, Portugal
Directorate of Lighthouses, Portugal

The Directorate of Lighthouses in Portugal (Direção de Faróis) is responsible for managing the country's 47 lighthouses, as well as other marine navigation activities. It is headquartered in Paço de Arcos. Lighthouses have played an important role in Portugal's maritime history. Portuguese sailors launched and led the Age of Discovery, and Portuguese ships have been sailing to far parts of the world for around 600 years. It is, therefore, not surprising that lighthouses have developed along the entire length of the country's coast and that today many are highly cherished national monuments. Since 1892, the Portuguese Navy has been responsible for maintaining the lighthouse network on the coast of Portugal. This is the responsibility of its Directorate of Lighthouses, which is a part of the National Maritime Authority (Autoridade Marítima Nacional). The Directorate was founded in 1924 and is a member of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities. Its mission includes: Supporting, training and ensuring the technical and professional conduct of lighthouse keepers; Inspecting technical compliance, operation and maintenance of navigation aids; Installing, operating and maintaining aids for navigation (with the exception of inside ports); Ensuring the uniformity of aids to navigation, in accordance with international recommendations; Studying and proposing the creation of maritime signalling easement zones; Maintaining, preserving and repairing coastal lighthouse infrastructure; Managing the MMSIs (Maritime Mobile Service Identities) used in maritime signalling equipment.The Directorate has a staff of 104, including military and civilians. It has the same number of lighthouse keepers, of which 60 cover the 28 lighthouses of the mainland, 34 the 15 lighthouses of the Azores and 10 the 4 lighthouses of Madeira. Its headquarters are at Paço de Arcos, near Lisbon and there are four Differential GPS Control Stations, at Cabo Carvoeiro Lighthouse, Peniche and the Sagres Lighthouse on the mainland and at Horta in the Azores and at Porto Santo on Madeira. Twenty-eight of the lighthouses and a small museum at the headquarters can be visited, on Wednesday afternoons. There is another museum at the Santa Marta Lighthouse in Cascais, which is open all days except Monday.