Cascais

People lived around Cascais from the late Palaeolithic, and the Romans left villas and fish-salting tanks found in the town itself. The settlement grew from the 12th century under the authority of Sintra, supplying fish to Lisbon by the 13th, and its name probably comes from cascal, a "mountain of shells". On 7 June 1364 King Peter I made it a town independent of Sintra. Its position at the mouth of the Tagus made it a guard post for the capital: John II built a small fortress by the sea around 1488, Manuel I granted a charter in 1514, and after Spanish troops took the town in 1580 the fortress was enlarged into a star-shaped citadel.

The 1755 earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of the town. In 1807 the citadel was occupied by Napoleon's army under General Junot. The transformation came in the second half of the 19th century: a summer house built by the Visconde da Luz and a new road to Lisbon led King Luís I to make Cascais his summer residence, and from 1870 to 1908 the royal family spent part of every summer in the citadel, which received the country's first electric lights in 1878. Noble families built summer mansions, the railway arrived in 1889, and King Carlos I installed Portugal's first oceanographic laboratory in the citadel.

In the 20th century a casino and resort were built in neighbouring Estoril, and Portugal's neutrality in the Second World War made the coast home to many of Europe's exiled royal families, from the Spanish Bourbons to King Umberto II of Italy, whose stories are told at the town's Exiles Memorial Centre. A marina opened in 1999, and in 2018 Cascais was European Youth Capital.

Cascais has a strong cultural life for a town of its size. The Gil Vicente theatre dates from 1869 and was attended in its early years by the royal family, and the Cascais Experimental Theatre has staged more than a hundred productions since 1965. Many of the town's mansions now house museums and galleries in the Museum Quarter, the best known being the museum devoted to Paula Rego, the Portuguese painter who died in 2022.

The town's sense of itself was shaped by the court and by exiles. Its eclectic summer villas, the casino that helped inspire Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, and the Guincho beach seen in On Her Majesty's Secret Service all belong to that legend of royalty and the jet set, and the municipality remains one of the most expensive places to live in the country.

Sport and the sea are also central. The marina has hosted major sailing events, including the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships, Guincho and Carcavelos are among Portugal's best-known surf beaches, the Estoril Open tennis tournament is played in the municipality, and the football club Estoril Praia plays a short way inland from the Estoril seafront. Lisbon's international community and many young people live along this coast, and the nightlife reflects it.

The town itself had about 64,000 inhabitants in 2021, and the municipality of Cascais, which includes Estoril, Carcavelos, Parede, Alcabideche and São Domingos de Rana, about 214,000. It ranks among the densest and most prosperous municipalities in Portugal, with one of the country's highest proportions of residents in work and one of its most expensive property markets.

Tourism is a major part of the economy: an estimated 1.2 million tourists stay in the town's hotels each year, alongside visitors on day trips from Lisbon. Many residents commute to the capital by train or along the A5 motorway, and the town draws immigrants from many countries.

Life follows the beach and the seasons. In summer the bay, the esplanade towards Estoril and the beaches at Carcavelos fill with families and surfers, and the roads to Guincho are busy at weekends. Out of season the town is quieter and more local: the market, the cafés of the old centre and the coastal path, used by walkers, runners and cyclists all year.

Cascais grew on the sea, and fish and seafood remain the centre of its cooking. Cod, sea bass and squid are among the most popular dishes, grilled or prepared in the traditional ways of the Portuguese coast, and the restaurants along the road to Guincho are known for fresh seafood with Atlantic views. Some of the most interesting cooking is found not on the main promenade but in modest local eating houses in the back streets.

From the countryside behind the coast come meat dishes such as leitão de Negrais, roast suckling pig, and pork in the style of Mercês. The town market, built in 1952, sells fish from the local boats alongside fruit and vegetables.

The coast has its own wine. Carcavelos, at the eastern end of the municipality, holds Portugal's highest wine classification of origin; its history goes back to the 18th century, when the Marquis of Pombal protected the trade in Carcavelos wine. Colares wine from the sands north of the hills is also served locally, and both are rare, produced in very small quantities.