Forte de São Bento (Ribeira Brava)

On Ribeira Brava's seafront, the small round tower ordered in 1708 by the governor Duarte Sodré Pereira to protect the coast and the anchorage in the days of pirate and corsair attacks. The flood of October 1803 left it in ruins; restoration works begun in 1916 produced the present monument: a terrace with a sentry box, a round-arched doorway topped by an inscription and the national coat of arms on the north side, a niche with the image of St Benedict on the sea side. A landmark of the west coast's military heritage, to be seen with the São Bento church and the ethnographic museum.