São João Baptista Fort

The island's icon, a seventeenth-century heptagonal fortress on its own rock, joined to Berlenga by a stone causeway and built from the stones of the ruined monastery. Reinforced from 1651 under King João IV against corsairs, it withstood a legendary 1666 siege by fourteen Spanish warships. A National Monument since 1938, it served as a remote inn from 1953 to 1971 and now shelters a basic hostel run by the Amigos da Berlenga. Entry costs €1.