Ponta da Piedade

Ponta da Piedade is a headland just south of Lagos, in the western Algarve, where the coast breaks up into a maze of golden cliffs, sea stacks, arches and grottoes. The rock is a soft sedimentary stone laid down on the sea floor during the Miocene, roughly 20 to 7 million years ago, when this whole area was still under water; fossils of large sharks' teeth, extinct fishes and corals have been found in it. Since the land rose, the Atlantic has been carving it, and the result is a coastline in which every cove and pinnacle seems to be undercut, pierced or about to topple.

The colours are what most people remember: ochre, honey and rust in the cliffs, cut by bands of paler stone, against water that ranges from emerald in the shallows to deep blue offshore. The cliffs reach about 20 metres along much of the shore and about 40 metres at the cape itself. Below them the sea has hollowed out caves and tunnels that open onto one another, so that a small boat can pass from one grotto into the next under natural vaults; one of them is named after the Portuguese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times to see the rock glow, when the low sun lights up the faces of the stacks.

The headland has a long human history as well. In the sixteenth century a hermitage dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Our Lady of Pity, was built here, giving the place its name, and a Via Sacra linked it to Lagos; some of the stations of the cross still survive along the way. The chapel was later demolished, and the lighthouse that now stands on the point was built in 1912–1913. From its platform a stairway cut into the cliff leads down towards the water.

Getting there

Ponta da Piedade lies on the southern edge of Lagos, a historic port town in the Algarve; the nearest district, Porto de Mós, is about 1.5 km away. The closest airfield is Portimão Airport (PRM), about 11 km away, which handles small aircraft only; the main gateway is Faro Airport (FAO), roughly 80–90 km to the east by road. By land, visitors drive or walk out to the lighthouse and descend the steps cut into the slope; by sea, boat trips to the grottoes leave from Lagos marina.