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The Tropical Rooster
0.1 mi from the city centre · Costa da Caparica · Portugal
Costa da Caparica
Costa da Caparica is known for its Atlantic beaches, which Lisbon discovered in the 1930s, and for the protected fossil cliffs that rise behind them. Read on for its fishing roots, the legend of the rich cape and a national forest seeded to hold back the dunes.
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Costa da Caparica is a city in the municipality of Almada, on the western coast of the Setúbal peninsula, about 15 km from Lisbon. According to the parish council, its history is bound up with the sea, above all small-scale fishing, and with subsistence farming on small plots in the dunes. Records show that from the 17th century fishermen from the Algarve and from Ílhavo came here in October, November and December, and settlement seems to have taken hold in the 18th century: in 1747 José Gomes, a resident born in Ílhavo, presented a certificate to the town council so that he could work as a tailor and keep a shop open, and a criminal case over a hut fire in 1761 already shows a community at home here. Fishermen from Ílhavo settled in the north and those from the Algarve in the south, and to the Ílhavo crews the council credits the design of the local "saveiro" or half-moon fishing boats.
In the 1930s, with the growth of tourism, Lisbon discovered the beaches of the "Praia do Sol", and the settlement grew around them. Residents petitioned to become a parish in 1946, and the new parish of Costa da Caparica was created in 1949. It became a town on 9 July 1985 and a city on 9 December 2004.
The legend behind the name Caparica tells of a frail old woman in a patchwork cape whose hidden gold, found after her death, paid for a church she had asked the king to build: capa rica, the rich cape. Behind the beaches rises the Paisagem Protegida da Arriba Fóssil da Costa da Caparica, a protected landscape of carved cliffs created by decree on 22 May 1984. Within it lies the Mata Nacional dos Medos botanical reserve, a forest covering 340 hectares, where King João V ordered the seeding of land to hold back the dunes.
Craft beer in Costa da Caparica is a rare find along this stretch of Atlantic beaches. Keep an eye out for something local after a day by the sea and the fossil cliffs.
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Frequently asked questions
Costa da Caparica is a city in the municipality of Almada, on the western coast of the Setúbal peninsula, about 15 km from Lisbon. Its beaches face the Atlantic, and behind them rises a protected landscape of fossil cliffs, so the city combines a seaside resort with a nature area close to the capital.
Costa da Caparica grew from a fishing community. Fishermen from the Algarve and Ílhavo came seasonally from the 17th century and settled in the 18th, and the town grew around its beaches once Lisbon discovered them in the 1930s. It became a parish in 1949, a town in 1985 and a city in 2004.
It is the Paisagem Protegida da Arriba Fóssil da Costa da Caparica, a protected landscape of carved cliffs created by decree on 22 May 1984. Inside it lies the Mata Nacional dos Medos botanical reserve, a 340-hectare forest where King João V ordered the seeding of land to hold back the dunes.
According to legend, the name comes from capa rica, meaning the rich cape. A frail old woman in a patchwork cape had asked the king to build a church, and after her death the gold she had hidden was found and used to pay for it, giving the place its name.
Carris Metropolitana buses link Costa da Caparica with Lisbon and Cacilhas: line 3710 runs from the bus terminal to Areeiro, 3709 to Marquês de Pombal and 3011 to Cacilhas. Line 3030 serves the southern beaches and 3021 the northern ones, and seasonal beach lines run in summer. Tarquínio/Paraíso and Rainha beaches offer an amphibious chair.