Fortaleza de Peniche
Posted by: 
manchanegra
N 39° 21.240 W 009° 22.810
29S E 467245 N 4356130
A military stronghold from middle ages used in the 19th and 20th century has a prison and a musem today.
Waymark Code: WMBZGT
Location: Leiria, Portugal
Date Posted: 07/08/2011
Views: 5
It´s a popular belief that the name Peniche may come from Phenix, , the name of an ancient city on the island of Crete (Greece), wich would be very similar to the former island of Peniche. Near the Carvoeiro cape, Peniche is now 13 mts above sea level in a 2.750 mts long peninsula.
The place was one of the favourite targets of the English, French and Algerian Corsairs so the King, D. Manuel (1495-1521) ordered the Count of Atouguia to prepare adefense plan for that part of the coast. This plan was presented to his sucessor, King D. João III (1521-1557) and the works began in 1557 with the construction of the "Village Castle".
During the following centuries the fort kept his role as a military stronghold untill the XIX century when the defensive function was progressively lost and the compound was used as a prison. First as a regular prison after the Napoleons invasions (they were three) and later as a political prison during the Liberal War.
At the dusk of the XX century it was used as a shelter for the Boers that escape from South Africa to Mozambique and then to Portugal after the English victory in South Africa. At the time of WWI (1914-1918) it held some German Prisioners and, during the Portuguese Estado Novo (Dictatorship from 1930-1974) it was converted in a High Security Political Prison.
Alvaro Cunhal, historic leader of the Portuguese Comunists was propably the most notorious prisioners of Peniche. He was incarcerated here during 11 years. Incomunicable during 14 months being 8 of them of total isolation.
At th 3rd January 1960 in what was called the Famous escape from Peniche, Alvaro Cunhal, Joaquim Gomes, Carlos Costa, Jaime Serra, Francisco Miguel, José Carlos, Guilherme Carvalho, Pedro Soares, Rogério de Carvalho and Francisco Martins Rodrigues.
The Famous Escape from Peniche was one of the most spectacular jail breaks of the Portuguese Fascism mostly because this was considered one of the most secure prisons of the country.
In the 25 April 1974, after the April Revolution it was used as a shelter for the refugees from the former African colonies during the decolonization process.
After 1984 it was converted in a museum with archeologic, historic and etnographic material where the called Resistance area (where you can see how the prison environment during the dictatorship period was) stands out.
Text from Wikipedia
Designação (Name): Fortaleza de Peniche
Categoria de protecção (Classification): Classificado como MN - Monumento Nacional
Categoria/Tipologia (Type of heritage): Arquitectura Militar / Fortaleza
Concelho (City): Peniche
Página do Património na base de dados da DGPC (Page of the Heritage at the DGPC database): [Web Link]
Wikipedia: [Web Link]
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