The Fort of the ChurchSão Mateus da Calheta, also referred to as the Forte da Igreja, are the coastal ruins of a 16th-century fort situated in the civil parishof São Mateus da Calheta, municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, on the Portuguese island of Terceira, in the archipelago of the Azores. It was destroyed, along with the church, in 1893 during a cyclone; while the church was eventually reconstructed some years later, the fort was abandoned and left to ruin.
History
The Fort of São Mateus was one of the first bastions constructed during the context of the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580, authorized by then-magistrate Ciprião de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos, under the plans for the island elaborated by Tommaso Benedetto de Pesaro in 1567. This followed an attack by French corsairPierre Bertrand de Montluc on Funchal, and a tentative attempt during the same year on Angra : Drummond later recorded: It was there, during the history of the parish of São Mateus, that the carracks found landfall on their return from the Indies, in search of the port of Angra. During the War of the Spanish Succession the fort was referred to as the Redoubt of São Mateus, in report dated 1710. With the establishment of the Captaincy-General of the Azores, an evaluation of the fort, in 1767, found: A codex to this analysis was provided by adjunte Manoel Correa Branco who indicated that no public works were necessary. During the Liberal War, the fort continued to be an important strategic fortification, its plan formalized in the collection of plans developed by José Rodrigo de Almeida, in the Gabinete de Estudos de Arquitetura e Engenharia Militar, in Lisbon. Yet, a report by Field Marshal Barão de Bastos in 1862 indicated that the fort was incapable of any activities for several years. In 1881, the fort was inspected by lieutenant engineer António Belo de Almeida Júnior, who found the structure in good condition, although he noted that the barriers were inconsistent and only protected by the walls that surrounded it. On 28 August 1893 a cyclone or exceptional summer storm resulted in the destruction of many of the buildings on the island, including the fort and its neighbouring church. Its abandon was almost complete, and over time its strategic importance and lack of reconstruction meant that that fort fell into ruin: it did not survive into the modern epoch.
Architecture
Located on a dominant position over a stretch of the coast west of Angra do Heroísmo, it was situated in a cove that allowed easy offloading of provisions to the island. The fortification was used to defend the anchorage from attacks by pirates and corsairs, that frequented the waters of the mid-Atlantic. It was constructed between the Fort of Negrito and Fort of the Terreiro, providing an important crossfire position some in front of the old Church of São Mateus of Calheta, from which it derived its name. A baluarte, the fort was of small dimensions with a trapezoidal plan, occupying an area of approximately. Within its brickwork walls, were four cannon emplacements, two central, while the remaining cannon emplacements guarded the lateral flanks, yet not parallel. Between the emplacements are bunks for fuzilheres. On the eastern end of the structure was a small building that acted as a powder magazine and storehouse. Access to the fort occurred across a public road, by a ramp until the main gate and walls
