Fort of São Sebastião de Caparica 1.74

The Fort of São Sebastião de Caparica also known as the Tower of São Sebastião or Fortress of the Old Tower is a medieval fortification located in Monte da Caparica, civil parish of Caparica, in the municipality of Almada, in the Portuguese central region of Península de Setúbal.The fortress of Torre Velha is one of the more important examples of Renaissance-era military architecture, at a time when it served as part of an integrated system of defensive artillery outposts at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, in particular with the bulwarks of Cascais and São Vicente .HistoryThe Old Tower, situated on the southern margin of the Tagus River, was commissioned by King John II, on the same site of the older Fort of Caparica (which was built in the reign of his father, King John I). The fort received its name Torre Velha mostly because the structure was considered "older" than the Tower of São Vicente (Torre de São Vicente), which later be known as the Tower of Belém. Its original structure, from the sketches of Garcia de Resende, comprised a tower and bulwark, similar to model developed years later in the Fort of Santiago da Barra (Viana do Castelo) and Tower of Belém (Lisbon). Defenses along the estuary and port of Lisbon were based on a system of three towers, which were refurbished with modern artillery (including the Bulwarks of Cascais and the São Vicente), which cooperated with the naval artillery (which patrolled the waters of the river) to enforce military and fiscal authority.