A Costa Vicentina

A Costa Vicentina é rodeada por um planalto costeiro com falésias que escondem pequenas praias de areia. Alguns dos locais de mais interesse na costa vicentina são, a Ilha do Pessegueiro, o estuário do Rio Mira, o cabo Sardão, o promontório de Sagres entre outros. No mar, existem rochedos repletos de ninhos de cegonhas e garças. Existem também muitas mais espécies de aves neste local como o corvo marinho e águia pesqueira. Na Costa Vicentina, estão presentes vários locais históricos e pré-históricos, testemunhos fenícios, árabes e romanos, bem como construções defensivas de séculos mais recentes. Existem numerosas paisagens de cortar a respiração.

One of the most precious pieces of Portugal’s patrimony is the Sudoeste Alentejano and Costa Vicentina, a majestic sweep of coastline and hinterland that stretches from S. Torpes near Sines in the north to the border of the Algarve at Odeceixe to Sagres and the rural district of Vila do Bispo in the south west.

Declared a protected zone by the Government in 1995, it is a place of wild, rugged landscape where nature combines with history to create a unique and often awe- inspiring environment.

Its existence as the nation’s largest protected coastal zone ironically owes itself to the fact that at the onset of mass tourism in the Algarve in the 1960s developers considered the region too desolate for touristic development so it was spared the high rise buildings and resorts that characterize much of the southern coastline.

Today, its untouched beauty and cultural traditions have been finally recognised and preserved for future posterity and it is being increasingly promoted as an area of special ecological importance and a wonderful haven for tourists who like to explore off the beaten track.