The Mourisca Tide Mill is located near the village of Mourisca and in the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. It has been restored and is now an environmental education centre and museum. Built in 1601, it remained a working mill until the 1960s when it fell into disuse. Reconstruction work started in 1995. The structure is some 280 square metres and houses eight...

The forest-clad, elongated hummock of the Serra da Arrábida is a veritable oasis of natural vegetation amid the suburban sprawl of the Setubal peninsula, with an incredibly diverse wildlife to match. Its scientific value and state of conservation has led to this protected area being included in the European Network of Biogenetic Reserves. More than 1,000...

The Romans named it Promontorium Barbaricum, alluding to its dangerous location, and a lighthouse warns sailors of the treacherous rocks below. Tourists are drawn here due to breathtaking views of its cliffs facing the Atlantic Ocean and its mystical surroundings. Built extremely close to the edge of the tall cliffs stands the Santuário de Nossa Senhora do...

Some 250 metres off the beautiful Portinho da Arrabida beach is a 40 metre long rocky island known as Pedra da Anixa, which is part of the Arrabida nature reserve in Setubal. Important for its sub-aquatic vegetation and even more so for its extremely varied marine life; to date more than 70 species have been recorded as well as scores of marine...

Covering more than 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres), the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve in Setubal was established to protect the estuary. The inner part of the estuary is bordered by rice-fields and reedbeds, whereas the north-western limits are densely populated and the south-western parts are sheltered from the open sea by a sandbar. The Sado estuary has been...