Fort of the Cavalas

The Cavalas Fort was one of the fortifications constructed in the context of the 1580 Succession Crisis, by the Corregedor of the Azores, Ciprião de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos, from the defensive plans elaborated by Tommaso Benedetto in 1567, after the attack of the French pirate Pierre Bertrand de Montluc on Funchal (October 1566), and the attempted attack on Angra, also in 1566: Drummond registered: "More ahead [of the Bay of Salga], significant space, was founded the fort of the Cavalas, with wall on the west to defend the natural wharf that there existed..."[1] In the context of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714) it was referred to as "O Forte das Cavallas", in the "Fortificações nos Açores existentes em 1710".

[6] The Relação of field Marshall Barão de Bastos (1862) situated the fort in the parish of Porto Judeu and indicated that it was incapable of defending the coast.

[8] During the second World War, part of the corner of the old fort was reused to construct the houses used to garrison the machine-gunners posted along the bays of Salga and das Mós.

Located in a dominant position over a coastal section of the civil parish, the fortification was used for defence of anchorage from pirates and privateers that frequented the waters of the North Atlantic.

With capacity for nine artillery pieces and canon emplacements, the interior spaces include gunpowder magazine accessed by a ramp and a garrison building.