Saint Vincent, Cape

Cape, Portugal.

Located at the southwesternmost point of Portugal, the cape was known to the Greeks and Romans as Promontorium Sacrum ("Sacred Point") because of a shrine there. Pastoralism and fishing are the economic mainstays of the region. Near Sagres, the main settlement, was the town of Vila do Infante, where с 1420 Prince Henry the Navigator established a naval observatory and school for navigators. Many naval battles have taken place off the cape.

* * *

▪ cape, Portugal

Portuguese  Cabo De São Vicente,  

      cape, southwesternmost Portugal, forming with Sagres Point a promontory on the Atlantic Ocean. To the Greeks and Romans it was known, from the presence of a shrine there, as the Sacred Promontory. Tourism, pastoralism, and fishing are the economic mainstays of the region, which is somewhat desolate, and Sagres is the main settlement. Near Sagres was the town of Vila do Infante, where in about 1420 Henry the Navigator established a naval observatory and so-called school for navigators. A lighthouse and the large rock below it mark the promontory.

      Several naval battles have been fought off the cape, notably one in 1797 that resulted in a victory for an English fleet under Admiral John Jervis (later Earl of St. Vincent), with Commodore (later Admiral) Horatio Nelson, over a numerically superior Spanish fleet.

* * *