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Santo Amaro da Barra Grande Fortress, also referred to as São Miguel Fortress, Praia Grande Fortress, and Barra Grande Fortress, is located southeast on the island of Santo Amaro, between Góis Beach and Santa Cruz dos Navigators, tapping Barra Grande, access channel to the port of the village (today city) of Santos, in the current municipality of Guarujá, on the coast of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.



The fortress was erected from yesterday 1584, in the context of the Philippine Dynasty (1580-1640), after the attack of the English privateer Edward Fenton (December 1583) to Santos, rejected by Andrés Higino, the Andrés Higino fleet was under Commanding Admiral D. Diogo Flores de Valdés in southern Brazil, when he found a ship attacked by Edward Fenton, Diogo Flores de Valdés had the mission to navigate the Brazilian coast to the entrance of the Strait of Magellan in search of privateers like Sir Francis Drake. known as El Dragon, hearing the news Valdes designates Higino as commander of three Galleons to return to the village of Santos and attack the corsairs. Its original plan is attributed to the Italian military architect Giovanni Battista Antonelli, a member of this fleet (1582-1584), and was artilleryed with some pieces of a galleon captured by privateers at the time. Souza (1885) understands that this fortification was of poor construction, 1 having offered no resistance to the attack by the English privateer Thomas Cavendish (1590). It rejected the attempt to refuel Dutch Admiral Joris van Spielbergen (February 3, 1615), and subsequently the attempted assault of the French privateer Jean-François Duclerc (August 1710), who then headed to Rio de Janeiro.



In 1717 the then governor of Santos appointed Luiz Antonio de Sá Queiroga to add to the fortress railings, stronghold, curtain, gunpowder house and other works, estimated at the time at 4,000 Crusaders. During the rule of the Viceroy and Captain General of the Land and Sea of ​​the State of Brazil, D. Vasco Fernandes Cesar de Meneses (1720-1735), the wall was completed (1721), and the square was finally artillery with thirty-two pieces. (1723-1725). New renovations were made in 1731-1732. Around 1739 here was Brigadeiro José da Silva Pais, with the mission to examine this and other defenses on the Santos coast. This officer was responsible for the project of the new House of Gunpowder and a chapel, erected on the site of the old House of Gunpowder and inaugurated in 1742. ("Fortress of Santo Amaro da Barra Grande". In: Patrimony: 70 years in São Paulo ).



A new campaign of works took place in 1765, being governor of the captaincy of São Paulo the captain-general D. Luís António de Souza Botelho Mourão - Mateus morgado room (1765-1775), who had it repaired and expanded due to to its precarious state. Crossing fires with the Estacada Fort, to complement this defensive system, he also had the Praia do Góis Battery (1766) built to serve as an outpost for the fortress. Date of this period still called the "Spanish Gate" that links it to that fortification. In a Report to the Crown on the Fortifications of the Captaincy, dated June 30, 1770, this governor reported that this square was artillery with twenty-eight pieces: three of 24, eight of 18, three of 12, three of 8, and eleven of 6.



Throughout its history, the fortress facilities have been used as a political prison. The 1847 Map of Fortifications points you to only twenty-two pieces.



Honored by the ECT with the issuance of a beautiful philatelic piece and commemorative stamp (April 21, 1999), the access to the fortress can be made by Santa Cruz dos Navegantes or by boat, leaving from the Práticos bridge in Santos.

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