Cape Saint Vincent

Cape Saint Vincent, cape, southwesternmost Portugal, forming with Sagres Point a promontory on the Atlantic Ocean. To the Greeks and Romans it was known, from the presence of a shrine there, as the Sacred Promontory. Tourism, pastoralism, and fishing are the economic mainstays of the region, which is somewhat desolate, and Sagres is the main settlement. Near Sagres was the town of Vila do Infante, where in about 1420 Henry the Navigator established a naval observatory and so-called school for navigators. A lighthouse and the large rock below it mark the promontory.

Several naval battles have been fought off the cape, notably one in 1797 that resulted in a victory for an English fleet under Admiral John Jervis (later Earl of St. Vincent), with Commodore (later Admiral) Horatio Nelson, over a numerically superior Spanish fleet.