The Cabo de San Vicente Lighthouse (in Portuguese: Farol do Cabo de São Vicente) is a lighthouse located on the Cape of San Vicente, a freguesia of Sagres, council of Vila do Bispo, Algarve region, Portugal. It is built inside the Fortress of San Vicente of the sixteenth century. The headlight emits a flash of white light of 0.1 s of duration every 5 seconds. It has a nominal night range of 32 nautical miles. During the reign of Manuel I of Portugal, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Bishop of Algarve, Fernando Coutinho, ordered a fortress and a tower to be built on the Cape of San Vicente as a beacon as a defense of that area of the coast. In 1587, the British pirate Francis Drake destroyed the fort and the primitive lighthouse. The structure was ordered to be rebuilt by King Felipe II of Portugal, (III of Spain) in 1606. Like all the fortresses in the area, it was razed during the earthquake of 1755.
