Weekly Photo

Fortaleza de São Julião da Barra.
This is the main fortress of the old defense system of the Tagus river.
This defense system comprised several fortresses along the coast line and one fortress in the middle of the river, called "Fortaleza de São Lourenço da Cabeça Seca" (Fortress of Saint Lourenço of the Dry Head, sounds silly, but the island itself was called Dry Head) but everybody calls the fortress island Torre do Bugio (don't think there is a translation to this one).
By the way, we have an expression in Portugal that is "vai bugiar", usually translated by "take a hike", but it really means "row your little boat to that stone fortress in the middle of the river and stay there because we have had enough of you"(although if you pick a dictionary you can come up with a different definition for bugiar and be led in a completely different direction).
But back to Fortaleza de São Julião da Barra, that was one of the three command centers for all the other fortresses (built during the XVI and XVII centuries). With a few canons on each fortress, they could sink any ship trying to enter or leave the river without permission, thus keeping Lisbon safe .
One interesting feature of these fortresses is the fact that although they are quite big they were built to blend with the coast line. This feature can be easily noticed on the ones farther away from Lisbon. When approached by the sea side and from a distance it is not easy to spot them.
Today these fortresses play two important roles: they allow the tourists to take pictures and they allow the army to perform awkward ceremonies from time to time although none of us civilians really knows why. The most famous of all these fortresses is the Torre de São Vicente de Belém (by far the less inconspicuous!!!).

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