[1] It was constructed in the present-day settlement of Praia do Forte, 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) from a small natural harbor on the Atlantic coast.

The castle sits on a hill with a good view of the Atlantic Ocean; the castle, as well as the village of Tatuapara, served as an advanced point of vigilance for Salvador and settlements around the Bay of All Saints.

Alerts of the approach of enemy ships were sent from the castle to Salvador via encrypted messages of smoke and torches; they traveled from the castle through a chain of Jesuit villages and other small settlements until they reached Salvador.

[2][3][4] Garcia built a complex that included a fortified watchtower, a castle, and a church.

[5] Casa da Torre was the embryo of a great morgado that began in the captaincy of Bahia in the 16th century and that, for 250 years, expanded over the generations of its lords for more than 400 leagues in the Northeast region of Brazil — a territory that corresponded to twice the captaincy of Piauí — at the cost of wars against the Indians, with their enslavement to work in the sugar cane plantations, in the sugar mills and in the creation of oxen, horses and mules (all these animals were used for transport over short distances and as traction force on the mills).