Serra da Arrábida(Setúbal): What to see
Serra da Arrábida is one of the most beautiful protected areas in Portugal. Here you can find fantastic deserted beaches between the blue of the sea and the green of the mountains. You can also walk along the various walking routes, observe dolphins in the Sado estuary and visit some monuments. Discover 12 fantastic places to visit in the Serra da Arrábida.
1. Portinho da Arrábida
Located in the Serra da Arrábida Natural Park, Praia do Portinho is one of the most beautiful in Portugal. Its fine white sands and the varied shades of blue of the clear waters of the ocean contrast with the verdant vegetation of the Sierra, forming a beautiful scenery that invites to rest and contemplation.
2. Figueirinha beach
Set in the beautiful Serra da Arrábida, Figueirinha Beach is one of the most popular and sought after in the region, due to its easy access and tranquility.
3. Arrábida Convent
The Convent of Arrábida, built in the sixteenth century, encompasses, along its 25 hectares, the Convento Velho, located in the highest part of the mountain, the Convento Novo, located in the middle of the hillside, the Garden and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus.
4. Galapos Beach
Surrounded by the luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation of Arrábida, the beach is a narrow strip of sand bathed by a calm, blue and transparent sea.
A strip of golden or very white sand, between Arrábida and a magnificent, blue and calm sea, a paradise
5. Castle of Palmela
The Castle of Palmela is situated in the village of Palmela, in the District of Setúbal. The castle is visible from the mouth of the river Sado. This castle is situated on the well-known Costa Azul, in the Natural Park of Serra da Arrábida.
On the clearest days, you can see through its tower the capital of Portugal, Lisbon. This castle is 240 meters above sea level, with an irregularly shaped polygonal plan with several circular or square turrets.
6. Castle of Sesimbra
It is the last of the Portuguese Castles on the sea to maintain the medieval moth. It presents irregular plant, occupying the whole top of the slope. The nascent side consists of the fortress with the keep and turrets, while the remaining perimeter includes the villainous fence, protected in the doors by turrets and at its west end by a tower.
7. Cape Espichel
Cape Espichel is a promontory located in Portugal, west of the village of Sesimbra. It is bordered to the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the national road 379 and Ribeira dos Caixeiros. It marks the southwest end of the Setúbal peninsula. In the cape, it glimpses, vertiginous and abyssal, Bay of Lagosteiros.
8. Fort of Santa Maria da Arrábida
The Fort of Santa Maria da Arrábida is situated on a cliff existing at the foot of the south slope of the mountain range, southwest of Portinho da Arrábida and about 5 kilometers west of the Sado mouth.
9. Beach of Galapinhos
The beach of Galapinhos is the ideal place for those seeking a breathtaking landscape. It is bordered by a green slope and has calm and clear waters: this zone mixes, almost wildly, the vegetation with the sea.
10. Ribeira do Cavalo beach
Located a little more than a mile west of Sesimbra Bay, Ribeiro do Cavalo Beach retains a unique beauty, which is why it is considered one of the most beautiful beaches of the Arrábida coast. Its waters, rich in marine flora and fauna, delight the lovers of diving, being frequent to observe several species of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
11. Cave of Lapa de Santa Margarida
Located at the foot of the Serra da Arrábida, by the sea, where you arrive by boat or land by a path built there by a hermit, descending about 200 stone steps to the place, the grotto of Lapa de Stª Margarida is an unusual place still visited today, where there is a chapel in a degraded state built there in the seventeenth century. There were 3 images (of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, Stª António, and Stª Margarida) in the niches that appear in the figure above but disappeared with time, one of them being stored in the Arrábida Convent.
12. Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape Espichel
Its origins go back at least to the fourteenth century, to a document of the D. Pedro I chancellery, dated 1366, which refers to the pilgrimage routes to Santa Maria do Cabo. However, according to oral tradition, the discovery, on the promontory, of the image of Our Lady by two old men from Caparica and Alcabideche, who in similar dreams would have been warned by Heaven, occurred only in the year of 1410. The fifteenth century marks, therefore, a broad development of the Sanctuary. In this period is erected the Hermitage of Memory, as well as the primitive Church.
