[1] A small stream named Ribeira da Carrapateira flows through the village, and it is surrounded by the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park.

Carrapateira point, or Pontal, was a traditional danger for sailing ships, its high reddish rock formations looking deceptively similar to Cape St. Vincent, the southwest corner of Portugal's coast some eleven miles further south.

[6] To the north of the Carrapateira headland is the vast Praia da Bordeira, regarded as one of the best beaches in Portugal, "noted for its rugged limestone cliffs and extensive sand dunes".

The walls of the fort were built to enclose the pre-existing parish church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, a structure of popular Algarvian design with some Manueline traces dating from the 16th century.

[14] Excavations carried out in 2001 to the southwest of the town identified a small fishing village dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries at the end of the period of Muslim occupation in the Algarve.