Fort of São João Baptista of Praia Formosa
Portugal · Europe
About
The Fort of São João Baptista (Portuguese: Forte de São João Baptista/Castelo da Praia) is the ruins of a 16th-century maritime fort situated on the western edge of Praia Formoso, in the civil parish of Almagreira, municipality of Vila do Porto, on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria (in the archipelago of the Azores).
Located in a strategic point along the southern coast, the fort was constructed to defend the anchorage from attacks by pirates and corsairs, that frequented this region of the Atlantic during the Age of Discovery. Contemporary archaeological campaigns during the 20th century attempted to ascertain if this forte constituted one of the oldest in the archipelago, yet this never conclusively validated by documented sources. In fact, the oldest forts in the Azores have been validated in Terceira and São Miguel: Castle of São Cristóvão (1460), in the Alto dos Moinhos, Angra do Heroísmo; the Fort of São Brás (1551) in Ponta Delgada; and the Fort of São Sebastião (1572) over the Porto das Pipas, also in Angra dor Heroísmo.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.