Peniche Fort

- darkometer rating: 6 -

An old fort on the Atlantic Ocean coast in the town of Peniche north of Lisbon. From 1934 to 1974 the fort was used as the main high-security prison for political prisoners during the Salazar dictatorship. In recent years a museum about the dark days of the dictatorship and the resistance against it was developed at the site. This National Museum of Resistance and Freedom finally opened in April 2024. It’s now arguably Portugal’s foremost dark-tourism attraction.

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>What there is to see

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More background info: for general historical context please refer to this separate chapter about the history of Portugal.

Construction of the fort at Peniche was begun in the 16th century, and the fortifications were improved over the centuries. It had at times already seen prisoners, including 19th century political prisoners. At the beginning of the 20th century, Peniche Fort provided accommodation for refugee Boers (cf. St Helena) who had escaped South Africa via the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

Late during World War One, the fort held German and Austrian POWs (released only after the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919).

Shortly after the installation of the “Estado Novo” (‘New State’) right-wing regime in Portugal, Peniche Fort from 1934 became the principal place where opponents of the regime were imprisoned. Between 1953 and 1961 three new prison cell blocks three storeys high were constructed, modelled on US high-security prisons like Alcatraz.

In 1960 a group of political prisoners, including the leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, Álvaro Cunhal, managed to escape from the Fort, the largest such breakout in its history.

After the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the restoration of democracy, the political prison was closed. From 1977 to 1982 it served as a refugee centre for returnees from the former colonies (cf. Angola, Cape Verde and East Timor).

The Peniche Municipal Museum was established in 1984 and it already had a section about the political prisoners, but in 2017 it was decided that Peniche Fort should house the new “Museu Nacional Resistência e Liberdade” specifically about the years of repression and incarceration of political prisoners as well as about the resistance and the overcoming of the dictatorship.

From 2019 onwards some initial exhibitions were hosted at the fort, but only on a temporary basis. Only after a major refurbishment of the complex was the museum proper installed. This finally opened its doors on 27 April 2024, so just after the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution and the release of the last political prisoners from Peniche two days later.

In my 2021 book Atlas of Dark Destinations I picked Peniche Fort as Portugal’s top example of dark tourism, even though it hadn’t yet opened then. I trusted it would be justified. I finally visited the site in January 2025 and can now confirm that my hunch had been right. It really has become Portugal’s No. 1 core dark-tourism destination.

What there is to see: before going to the museum part it’s worth taking a good look at the fort’s structure first. There’s a bridge leading from an outer bastion to the inner gate in the main wall. To the left is a big arch through which the sea reaches a small beach. Towering over this are the massive battlements with their little watchtowers. It’s quite a setting.

Once through the first gate you come to a square leading past a large rusty metal monument with victims’/prisoners’ names engraved on it. Then you cross the bridge (probably at one point in the past a drawbridge) to get to the site’s entrance proper where you purchase your ticket.

From the foyer inside the gatehouse you can access what they call the “Parlatory” (‘Parlatório’ in Portuguese). This is the complex where prisoners could receive visitors, family or friends. The layout was such that there were rows of stools outside a wall with glass panes. The prisoners would take their seat on stools on the other side. Hence no physical contact was possible. According to the text panels (all bilingual in Portuguese and more or less decent translations into English), guards would have stood behind the prisoners and listened into what was being said – due to the separating glass panels, conversations had to be held very loudly, so every word was audible to both visitors/prisoners and guards. On the glass panels small snippets of text are placed seemingly quoting what guards’ instructions may have been, such as “speak louder!” or “you can only talk about your family.”

Through a heavy door in the back you can walk round to the prisoners’ side of the “Parlatory”. Though quite brightly lit and painted all in white, the place still oozes an unsettlingly dark atmosphere.

A side room comes with a small exhibition with glass display cabinets containing photos, drawings and documents, as well as yet more wall panels with explanatory texts. In addition there is a screen playing interviews with former inmates or some of their family members giving their testimonies (with English subtitles).

You then retrace your steps back to the foyer and from there you can enter the inner fort. The wide expanse that opens up here features another monument, this time one that resembles a large metal cage from which long metal sticks emerge into the sky topped by stylized birds. Next to the monument is a palm tree and in front of it a memorial plaque, in Portuguese only, that seems to be about the founding of the memorial site.

Another panel gives vague directions to the different parts of the site. More signs dotted around warn against clambering on to the battlements. There’s no need for clambering anyway, as you can easily look out over the edge and out to the sea – where big waves keep rolling in and crashing on to the lower parts of the fort’s walls or on to the breakwater protecting the harbour to the east of the fort.

I first headed left towards what used to be the National Guard’s barracks, part of which were occupied by a temporary exhibition. Its main focus was one particular prisoner, António Dias Lourenço, a leader of Portugal’s Communist Party, who in 1954 managed to escape from the punishment cell in the “Round Fort” (see below). The exhibition’s text I found very detailed, perhaps too much so for a non-specialist visitor (see also Aljube).

After this I proceeded towards the outer head of the fort with its “Round Fort” or bastion. This is where the most feared punishment cells were located. Panels explain in minute detail the escape of António Dias Lourenço and the route he took, as well as pointing out other escapes, including the group escape of 1960 (see above). From the upper level of the round bastion you get good views over the fort as well as along the coastline.

From the round bastion you can’t proceed much further west, except to a former sentry post of some sort, but it’s from here that you get the best view of the outside of outermost of the three-storey cell blocks constructed between 1953 and 1961.

These cell blocks form the core of the museum site and exploring the various wings with cells is the main dark attraction of Peniche Fort – these are also what sets Peniche Fort apart from the Aljube in Lisbon in terms of place authenticity. While Peniche has it in spades, the Aljube is rather lacking on that front, with the cells there merely reconstructed replicas. At Peniche Fort it’s the real thing!

Shortly after entering this complex, which also has a bookshop and café, there’s a pre-given circuit marked by arrows on the floor. Still I somehow managed to get confused and took a wrong turn at the end of the first corridor, heading left where I should have headed right. So I saw the exhibition about the resistance and freedom as well as that about the history of Peniche Fort before I saw the main exhibition. Having first gone the wrong way also confuses my memory of the precise layout of the cell blocks, as I found myself having to go through parts again once I had become aware of my initial wrong turn. Anyway, these are roughly the main components:

There are several preserved/renovated cell blocks whose different wings you are free to explore. Some are communal cells for several prisoners, others are single cells, sparsely furnished. Some are older with only a bucket behind a hatch for a toilet, while newer ones featured contemporary flush toilets. There are also communal washrooms and showers, there’s even a bath tub. In addition you can see kitchen/canteen rooms and plenty of original cell doors with peek holes. Text panels explain the various parts and their functions.

One of the preserved cells is that of Álvaro Cunhal, who, together with a number of other members of the resistance imprisoned at Peniche Fort, escaped in 1960 (see above). The cell blocks also include a high-security wing where those prisoners that the regime deemed most dangerous were held, often over long periods of time.

There are two courtyards between the cell blocks, one of which was the former cistern, another courtyard features modern additions of raw concrete adding a certain “brutalist” edge to the design.

In a connecting wing is an old chapel with a wooden balcony and an ornate altar. Display cabinets outline the fort’s history, including the older parts thereof, in brief.

In some parts of the complex a museum warden “accosted” my wife and me, eager to provide oral explanations on top of the text panels (though not adding much to them). I found this more of a distraction than an extra service and so concentrated more on my photography, while I let my more “people-y” wife play the role of keen listener. She’s also better at decoding deficient English in a thick accent, which for me, on the other hand, made the warden’s narrative barely comprehensible.

The main exhibition is the one entitled “Resistance and Freedom”. It’s housed in one very long and rather dark room, plus a few side rooms, with blackened walls and gloomy exhibits. The warden at first followed us into this exhibition part too, but after a while left us to our own devices, which I appreciated.

Just as the equivalent exhibition at the Aljube, the text panels are very detailed, so much so that they can feel a bit overwhelming. This gets even more intense at the various interactive screens where you can scroll though absolute tons of information.

There aren’t that many artefacts on display, except for some old suitcases, a typewriter, the obligatory clandestine printing press and so forth. The darkest exhibit must be that of a shirt with a bullet hole in it.

Thematically, the darkest aspects are, predictably, those of torture (again, cf. Aljube) and its longer-term effects. For me the section about the Colonial Wars was the grimmest. Some of the images of massacres, including beheadings, are really hard to stomach.

Otherwise the exhibition covers the earlier historical context, especially with the rise of fascism (that way the faces of Hitler and Mussolini feature here as well), the Estado Novo regime’s repressive methods, with the infamous PIDE at its core (see history), including surveillance, propaganda and, of course, political imprisonment. On the other hand there’s also a focus on acts of resistance, clandestine and publicly (e.g. in the form of strikes). Covered too are forms of resistance from abroad, of which there apparently was a lot as well (e.g. in Britain).

In one corner is a large screen playing more videos of victims’/eyewitnesses’ testimonies – but in this case unfortunately without English subtitles, so I didn’t linger long.

The final exhibit is that of a large heap of keys, modern ones with keyrings in five different colours. There must have been more than 200 keys in total.

Back outside you can wander around the fort’s structures a bit more, but otherwise that is it.

All in all, I found the museum at Peniche Fort more convincing than the equivalent at the Aljube in Lisbon. Its main exhibition is similarly at risk of frequently getting lost in just too much detail, but it was slightly less overwhelmingly so than at the Aljube. What really makes all the difference, though, is the degree of place authenticity the cell blocks at Peniche Fort offer. In that respect it’s outstanding. So in short: some of the commodification could perhaps be better, but as an authentic dark place Peniche Fort really is second to none within Portugal. A must-see when in the country as a dark tourist!

Location: in the south of the town of Peniche on the Atlantic coast, ca. 50 miles (80 km) north of Portugal’s capital Lisbon.

Google Maps locator: [39.353, -9.381]

Access and costs: best reached by car but there are also buses; not too expensive.

Details: To get to Peniche, hiring a car is the most convenient option. Driving time from Lisbon airport is only about an hour when using toll roads (see under Portugal in general). There’s plenty of parking right by the fort and around the town.

Alternatively you can also get a bus. From Lisbon the journey takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. The fort is a ca. 15 minutes’ walk from Peniche’s bus station.

Opening times of the fort/museum: Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last entry at 5.15 p.m.); closed Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day as well as Easter Sunday and on 1st of May.

Admission: 10 EUR (some concessions apply). It’s quite a bit more than what you pay at the Aljube in Lisbon, but I’d say it’s still reasonable, as you get a lot more out of Peniche Fort. And they invested a lot of money in the restoration of the fort and the creation of the museum. So the formerly free admission was probably just not sustainable.

When staying overnight in Peniche, there are numerous accommodation options, mainly B&Bs, pensions and holiday apartments. Hotels are mostly located away from the central parts of town (especially by the northern beaches).

For eating out there’s a range of restaurants, many of which are clustered along the south-eastern part of the town, especially along Av. Do Mar.

Time required: I spent half a day in Peniche and stayed overnight; my visit to the fort and prison museum took about two hours.

Combinations with other dark destinations: nothing in the vicinity that I’d be aware of, so it’s best to head back to Lisbon as the nearest place offering things of interest for dark tourists.