View to Cabo de São Vicente

Road to the westernmost point of mainland Europe.

Rocky headland with a lighthouse, considered the SOUTHWEST point of mainland Europe.

The cape has been a sacred place since the Neolithic, as shown by menhirs (stone settings) in the area. In Phoenician times it is said to have been dedicated to the deity Melkart.[1] The Greeks called the place Ophiussa (Land of the Serpents) and its inhabitants Oestrimni (Inhabitants of the Far West), while the Romans called it Promontorium sacrum (Holy Promontory), as a magical place at the end of the world where the gods live and the Sun sinks into the sea.

The Christians named the coastal tip after Saint Vincent of Zaragoza, a patron saint of sailors. According to legend, the martyr's body was floated there in a boat and recovered in 304.[2]