A seaside fortress, now a hotel
The Citadel of Cascais began as a medieval tower raised on Point of Salmodo in 1488 under King John II, built to guard the mouth of the Tagus River against pirates and English raiders. An Italian engineer folded it into a triangular fort in 1594; the complex later became a royal palace, then in 2012 a hotel.
A tower raised to guard the approach to Lisbon
The Citadel of Cascais is a fortress complex on Portugal's coast, now a hotel called Citadel of Cascais. It guarded the mouth of the Tagus River, the water route into Lisbon. A first fort stood here between 1410 and 1415, built because English raiders kept threatening Cascais Bay. In 1488, King John II of Portugal ordered something sturdier. King John II had a medieval tower built at the tip of a rocky point called Salmodo. It was named the Torre de Santo António de Cascais, and it worked alongside two other forts, the Belém Tower and a fort across the river, to defend Lisbon from attack by sea.
The tower stood alone for a century. Then Portugal's crown passed to Spain, and in 1580 Spanish troops under the Duke of Alba took Cascais. The Spanish troops beheaded four Portuguese soldiers and hung the bodies from the fort to frighten the townspeople. Spain's king, Philip I, later ordered the site strengthened. In 1594, an Italian military engineer known as Captain Fratino designed a triangular fort around the old tower, folding it into a new structure called the Forte de Nossa Senhora da Luz de Cascais. The triangle gave the fort three bastions, with the old tower as one of them. Inside, a courtyard connected the bastions to barracks, gun batteries and water cisterns cut into the rock.
An earthquake tore the old tower apart
Portugal broke free of Spain in 1640, and King John IV of Portugal had the citadel reinforced around 1648. Builders enlarged the walls and strengthened the defenses facing the sea. The fort held this shape for over a century. Then, on November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake struck Lisbon and shook the whole coast. The upper part of the old tower collapsed, along with its floors and ceilings. The Chapel of Saint Anthony inside the walls was destroyed. Repairs dragged on for years afterward, patching a fortress that had stood for nearly three centuries.
A king turned the fortress into a summer palace
In 1862, a nobleman named Joaquim António Velez Barreiros built a modern summer home in Cascais. Joaquim António Velez Barreiros's house helped turn the sleepy fishing town into a fashionable resort. King Luís I of Portugal took notice. In 1870, he had the citadel converted into a royal summer residence. The royal family spent every September and October there for the next thirty-eight years, and Lisbon's wealthy families followed them to Cascais for the summer season. In 1878, Luís had the citadel wired for electric light, the first in the country. A plaque in town still marks Cascais as the place Portugal switched on its first electric lights.
The king's son, Carlos I of Portugal, used part of the fortress as a marine biology laboratory, and a statue of him today looks out at the sea he studied. The royal summers ended abruptly. Carlos I was assassinated in 1908, and the monarchy collapsed two years later.
Presidents and prisoners occupied the old citadel
Portugal became a republic in 1910, and the citadel's palace passed to the presidency. President Óscar Carmona lived there through nearly his entire time in office. Decades later, President João do Canto e Castro's wife, Mariana do Canto e Castro, moved into the palace for a few months in 1919, staying from May to September while her husband battled a heart condition. The couple lived in isolation by then. Canto e Castro's crackdown on monarchist uprisings during his presidency had cost him old friendships, and few of his former circle forgave him.
Later in the century, during the Estado Novo dictatorship under António de Oliveira Salazar, the citadel held political prisoners inside its old walls.
The dictatorship fell in the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and the citadel's military role ended with it.
The palace reopened as an art space, then a hotel
The Palácio da Cidadela sat mostly closed for decades afterward. In 2004, it reopened as an art space with museums, shops and restaurants. The architect Pedro Vaz led a deeper renovation, and the palace opened fully to the public in November 2011 for the first time in its history. The following year, the Pestana hotel group turned the old barracks and bastions into a luxury hotel. Architects Gonçalo Byrne and David Sinclair designed the conversion, and Portugal's president opened it in April 2012. The renovation took 608 days, a number the hotel now marks with 608 swallows decorating its lounge.
An art district opened inside the fortress walls
In March 2014, the hotel launched the Cidadela Art District, with open studios and galleries built into the fortress walls. It was the first hotel in Europe to run its own art district alongside guest rooms. The triangular fort now holds painters at work. The old tower King John II raised still stands at the point, folded into a building where visitors come to sleep, eat and look at art.
The citadel still serves as the Portuguese president's official summer residence when the hotel is not using the space.
The old tower and bastions now enclose a hotel courtyard where guests can walk the same walls raiders and princes once fought over.
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