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Bar Nº 1
0.6 mi from the city centre · Peniche · Portugal
Peniche, once an island
Peniche is known for its Fortress, part of a 17th-century defence system and a political prison of the Estado Novo from 1934 until April 1974. Read on for a former island joined to the coast by dunes, prize-winning bobbin lace, Roman amphorae and the Berlenga nature reserve.
0 breweries · 1 venue
Peniche was once an island: a crusader writing in 1147, on the eve of the conquest of Lisbon, noted that it lay about 800 paces from the mainland, and only from the 15th century did the slow formation of today's dune ridge join it to the coast. The Gruta da Furninha, on the southern edge of the peninsula, shows occupation going back to the Middle Palaeolithic, and in Roman times a pottery complex at Morraçal da Ajuda made amphorae for fish preserves, an industry that, as the council notes, still works here two thousand years later. Around twenty Roman lead anchor stocks and several amphorae have been recovered from the sheltered waters of Berlenga, today a nature reserve. In the Middle Ages the island depended on Atouguia da Baleia, a town named after the whales caught there, which Afonso Henriques granted in 1148 to the Frankish crusader Guilherme de Cornes. Peniche became a town and seat of a municipality in 1609, and in 1836 the municipality of Atouguia da Baleia was absorbed into it. After an English army landed near Consolação in 1589 and marched to the gates of Lisbon, the peninsula was heavily fortified; in 1642 King João IV's War Council called Peniche "the main key of the kingdom from the sea". The resulting system, completed in the 17th century, included the Fortress of Peniche, a long wall from the Forte das Cabanas to the Forte de Nossa Senhora da Luz, and the forts of São João Baptista on Berlenga and Nossa Senhora da Consolação. Nearly 400 Boer refugees arrived in 1901, most of them housed in the Fortress, and from 1934 until April 1974 it served as a political prison of the Estado Novo. Bobbin lace is another local tradition: in 1814 the military governor Richard Blunt proposed an annual prize for the finest lace, Peniche lace won silver medals at the Paris and London exhibitions in 1851 and gold in Rio de Janeiro in 1908, and a school centred on teaching it opened in 1887. In 1924 the Carminha became the port's first motorised traineira (seine-fishing boat).
Craft beer in Peniche is still a rare find, which makes tracking down a local glass part of the adventure. After a walk along the fortress walls, ask around for something freshly brewed.
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Bars in Peniche
Frequently asked questions
Yes, a crusader writing in 1147, on the eve of the conquest of Lisbon, noted that Peniche lay about 800 paces from the mainland. Only from the 15th century did the slow formation of today's dune ridge join it to the coast. The Gruta da Furninha shows occupation going back to the Middle Palaeolithic.
The Fortress was part of a defence system completed in the 17th century, after an English army landed near Consolação in 1589. Nearly 400 Boer refugees arrived in 1901, most of them housed in the Fortress, and from 1934 until April 1974 it served as a political prison of the Estado Novo.
Bobbin lace is a local tradition. In 1814 the military governor Richard Blunt proposed an annual prize for the finest lace, Peniche lace won silver medals at the Paris and London exhibitions in 1851 and gold in Rio de Janeiro in 1908, and a school centred on teaching it opened in 1887.