Budens: Forte de São Luís de Almádena
Ruins of a fort built in the 17th. Century on the coast of the western Algarve near Budens
The fort has been erected in 1632 on the coast of the western Algarve near Budens to protect a tuna fishing site on the neighbouring beach of Boca do Rio against attacks of corsairs and pirates. That’s why the fort is also known as Forte de Boca do Rio.
The construction was initiated by D. Luís de Sousa, governor and captain-general of the former kingdom of the Algarve. The fort was damaged during the earthquake of 1755 and the following tsunami and was abandoned in 1849.
The lagoon of Boca do Rio, situated on the estuary of the Ribeira de Budens, that watered into the Atlantic between the beaches of Budens and Salema, was an ideal site for tuna fishing since the Roman period. The actual landscape of a sandy bay protected by dunes has been formed only by the tsunami.
