Porto Covo

Porto Covo is a planned village - laid out on a grid in the late eighteenth century after the Lisbon earthquake, with low white houses trimmed in blue around a central square - sitting on low cliffs at the northern end of the Vicentine coast park. Below it the shore breaks into a series of small coves reached by steps: Praia Grande, Praia dos Buizinhos, Praia do Salto, each a pocket of sand between rock, and the coastal path links them. Offshore lies the Ilha do Pessegueiro, a low island with the ruins of a fort begun in the sixteenth century and never finished, matched by another fort on the mainland opposite; the island can be reached by boat in calm weather. The Fishermen's Trail starts here. Sines, with its large petrochemical port, is close enough to be visible north, which surprises people.

History

In Roman times the island of Pessegueiro had a small fish-processing works, and in the middle of the 18th century Porto Covo was only a small settlement around a cove, with four houses in 1780. It grew in the late 18th century through the merchant Jacinto Fernandes Bandeira, born on 28 April 1745 in Viana do Castelo, who grew rich under Pombal and set out to develop the community (Wikipedia, Porto Covo).

The landscape

• The grid village - late eighteenth-century planning in white and blue.
• The coves - a chain of small sand pockets between rock, linked by paths.
• Ilha do Pessegueiro - an offshore island with an unfinished sixteenth-century fort.
• The trail start - the northern end of the Rota Vicentina's Fishermen's Trail.

When to go

May to September. One to three days. August is crowded; June and September are better. Boats to the island run only in calm conditions.

Practical notes

Cold Atlantic water and strong currents in the coves. The village is small and fills in August. Sines's industrial port is visible to the north. Island boat trips are weather-dependent and often cancelled.

Nearby

Vila Nova de Milfontes is south; Sines and its port are north.

Key facts