At Peniche, on central Portugal’s Atlantic coast, the Fortress or Fortaleza where communists and other opponents of the 1933-74 Salazar dictatorship were incarcerated is now a museum celebrating the struggle against fascism. Centuries earlier, it was besieged by Sir Francis Drake, saw fighting in the Peninsula War and was a refuge for former Portuguese colonists.
Peniche, Leiria District, Portugal: an arched footbridge crosses a rocky dry moat to the main gate of Peniche Fortress or Fortaleza de Peniche, founded by King John III in the mid-1500s as a key coastal defence against seaborne attacks by the English and French and raids by Barbary pirates. The austere fortress guarding the mouth of Peniche harbour was built from 1557 to a design influenced by England’s Tudor coastal castles. It was expanded in 1645 into an irregular star-shaped artillery fort and new batteries were built in the early-1800s. However, after the 1815 Congress of Vienna brought peace to Europe, it lost its military importance. The stronghold’s history includes being besieged while under Spanish control in 1589 by English admiral Sir Francis Drake, being damaged in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, fighting in the early 1800s Peninsula War and Portuguese Civil War, an 1837 gunpowder explosion and fire that destroyed the Governor’s House, and use as a refuge for former Portuguese colonists and as a tuberculosis sanatorium. The fortress has also been a political prison, holding German and Austrian nationals during World War I and communists and other opponents of the authoritarian Estado Novo (Second Republic) regime led by António de Oliveira Salazar from 1933 to 1974. Despite being held in maximum security, some prisoners, including communist leader Álvaro Cunhal, managed to escape by descending from the walls on ropes made from sheets. In 1974, a military coup led to Portugal’s return to democracy and the fortress is now Peniche’s municipal museum. It relates the story of the Peniche area and also, as the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, celebrates the struggle against fascism. Visitors to the two-hectare complex can also see the old prison yards and isolation cells.
Size: 7360px × 4912px
Location: Peniche, Leiria District, Centro Region, Portugal.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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