Fort of Santa Cruz

Fort of Santa Cruz (Portuguese: Forte de Santa Cruz da Horta or Castelo da Santa Cruz), is a 16th-century fortification located in the civil parish of Angústias, municipality of Horta, on the island of Faial in the Portuguese Azores. Occasionally referred to as the Castelo de Santa Cruz by locals, it is situated in the historic centre of the city, on the edge of Horta Bay. It was constructed to work in conjunction with the Fort of Bom Jesus (Portuguese: Forte do Bom Jesus) at the mouth of the Ribeira da Conceição and Fort of Greta (Portuguese: Forte da Greta) along the coast of the extinct spatter cone Monte da Guia, to defend the entrance to the harbour and southern access to the Bay.

Text adapted from “Fort of Santa Cruz (Horta)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort of Santa Cruz ranks #3,938 of 5,479 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #84 of the 132 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1567, it is older than 41% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 437 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗