The coastline around Cascais has shaped human life here for thousands of years, drawing Roman settlers and, later, Portuguese fishermen who read these waters by instinct. The cliffs along this stretch are among the most dramatic on the Estoril Coast, carved over vast timescales by Atlantic swells into a series of sheltered coves and sea caves. Cascais became a royal retreat in the nineteenth century, favored by the Portuguese royal family for its combination of dramatic scenery and fresh ocean air, a reputation that has kept it beloved ever since.

The golden light that floods these coves is most intense in the hours before sunset from late spring through early autumn, when the low angle of the sun turns the warm stone almost incandescent.