The site of Ponta da Piedade gives this point a special charm. The reddish rock of the cliffs, where sea grottoes nestle at the foot, contrasts spectacularly with the green colour of the clear water. You can visit the grottoes by boat. Behind the lighthouse, the view stretches from Cape St-Vincent to the west to Cape Carvoeiro in the east. Along a tiny road to the left of the lighthouse, there is a belvedere with a vertiginous view over the rocks.

This Church, which was established before the 16C, has a beautiful Manueline door. One of the chapels is completely covered in 18C azulejos, whilst the chapel of Nossa Senhora of Lourdes is decorated with cherished, multi-coloured azulejos in relief from the 16C, in the Seville style.

Sagres point is partly taken up by the fortress which was built in the 16C. Heavily damaged by the earthquake of 1755, it was repaired by the "New State" in 1940 and recently restored. Having gone through the doorway, you will enter a large courtyard on whose floor is an immense compass dial 43m in diameter. The former navigators' school and the house of the Infant were destroyed by the pirates of Francis Drake in 1587.

To the west it looks down on the mouth of the Arade and, with the fort of Ferragudo on the opposite bank, it guards the entrance to the Bay of Portimão. It was built in 1621 to defend Sives and Portimão from Spanish and Moorish attacks.