Report of the guided visit to the Bugio island

On 2 August, 20 members of the Society were fortunate to join one of the rare highly subscribed guided visits to the Bugio island by boat, to see the lighthouse, fort and prison cells. These visits are jointly organised by Espaço e Memória – Associação Cultural de Oeiras, Aquastart and the Câmara Municipal de Oeiras. A further 6 members secured places on a subsequent visit on 16 August.

Although the first idea to construct a fort was put forward during the short reign of D. Sebastião in 1571, work started on constructing the Torre de Bugio fort in 1590, during the reign of King D. Filipe I of Portugal (Felipe II of Spain). The first architect was Giovanni Vicenzo Casale, an Italian military engineer and architect, who four years after his death in 1594 was replaced by Frei João Torreano, an Italian born in Portugal. First known as Forte São Lourenço ‘com o seu bugio’ or Forte de São Lourenço da Cabeça Seca, it was strategically located at the head of the barra grande sand bank at the entrance of Lisbon, to complement the 15^th century fortifications of the entrance to the port of Lisbon of the Torre Velha de Almada and Belém, as well as Forte São Julião, which was to provide enfilade fire out towards the Bugio.

A major feat of engineering, the fort took nearly 100 years to complete in 1657 and was vulnerable to the threat of attacks by English pirates, including Sir Francis Drake, who entered Cascais in 1589, during an ill-fated expedition to help Portugal gain independence from Spanish rule. It was first a wooden structure built on a circular stone base known as ‘pedras perdidas’, armed with six cannons. Subsequent amplification required the transport of large blocks of stone extracted from a quarry situated between the Praia de Torre and the Bateria de Lage, in present day Santo Amaro de Oeiras. A special type of cement was used that was tolerant of salt. The dangerous incoming tide led to many shipwrecks, including those sailing the Carreira da Índia during the Discoveries, especially as the early caravels were unable to tack up wind. The lighthouse tower was built in 1693, later to be rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755, whose silhouette gives rise to its name – ‘bougie’, the French word for a cake with a candle. However the name could also have been derived from the Portuguese word ‘bugio’ – a type of pile driver.

Space was reserved for a chapel and work started 1670, dedicated to the martyr São Lourenço. The altar is a combination of Baroque and Manueline style and is built of limestone, being one of few that occupies the whole height up to the ceiling. A circular staircase leads up to the pulpit and the sacristy has a window. The first priests were Jesuits, and later a military chaplain was seconded from the church of Santo António do Estoril. Much later, a chaplain would come from Trafaria up until the 1960s, as it was possible to walk out along the sand bank at low tide.  Two baptisms were carried out on the island, one being a captured Algerian pirate, who spent 10 years on the island before deciding to convert, who was then released, and the other was at the end of the 18th century.

The island served as a battery to provide crossfire to the Oeiras coast and witnessed the Spanish Armada sail by in late May 1588. Incongruously it was declared a ship in 1792. On 11 July 1831 it was subject to an attack by a French fleet under Roussillon as a show of force to persuade the government of Miguel I to recognise the newly established ‘Constitutional Monarchy’. In response, 751 shots were fired at the French. Much later on, after WWII, the Baron plan contemplated installing four 75mm Krupps cannon in 1960, but the plan was abandoned. The fort housed a prison several times up until 1960, including during the Civil War of 1828-1834. It was a transit prison for prisoners being sent to Angola and Mozambique. Other prisoners include an ex-prime minister of D. Joao VI and Alves dos Reis, who perpetrated the Portuguese Bank Note Scandal in 1925, who was transferred to the island in 1940.

In 1945 the island was demilitarised and handed over to the lighthouse, which was manned from the 1940s through to 1982, with the lighthouse men staying for spells of up to 29 days. Our guide, Joaquim Boiça, is the son of one of the last of these keepers and he showed us the rooms where he and his siblings would stay when they visited their father at weekends. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for maintaining the island. The gambling tycoon Stanley Ho was given permission to establish a casino on the island in 2012, which never came to pass. Bottles of wine are currently kept in a cave on the island which are worth €250! Visits for tourists have only been permitted during the last 20 years, firstly with a maximum limit of 6 visitors a time, which was recently increased to 60 in 2021. Before the group left the island, the Society's Chair, Edward Godfrey, handed Joaquim Boiça a copy of one of the Society's Annual Reports (centre photo above) as a token of gratitude.