The cliffs of the Ponta da Piedade headland is one of the finest natural features of the Algarve. This dramatic limestone coastline is formed of sea pillars, fragile rock arches and hidden grottos, all of which have been chiselled-out by savage winter storms.

Being the most south-westerly point in mainland Europe, this rugged and forbidding Cape has long been considered sacred ground – ancient Greeks called it the ‘Land of Serpents’, but the pugnacious Romans oddly preferred a meeker designation: Promontorium Sacrum (‘Holy Promontory’), the Latin origin of the name ‘Sagres’ (from Sacrum). For them, terra firma-loving citizens of Rome, Cape St. Vincent was the ‘Edge of the World’, a supernatural vortex where the setting sun was dramatically submerged by the immense, unknown ocean (still today, the fading solar disk occasionally seems bigger and brighter at Cape St. Vincent). The myth persisted throughout the Middle Ages until a man decided to end all that crazy nonsense and – in the process – put an end to the Age of Darkness: Prince Henry the Navigator

In terms of global importance, Sagres' heyday was in the 15th century and this was down to Prince Henry the Navigator. He chose Sagres as his home and location of his school of navigation. The school boasts alumni such as Fernao de Magalhaes (Magellan), Pedro Alvares Cabral and Vasco da Gama whose impact on the World is still felt today. It was from nearby Belixe that the first caravels were launched, the same ships that brought about Portugal's age of The Discoveries and helped define the nation's identity.