The history of Cascais runs from a fishing village under Sintra to a town in 1364, a defensive post at the mouth of the Tagus, a royal seaside residence from 1870 and the place where the Armed Forces Movement approved its programme in March 1974.

This page lists the main dates in the history of Cascais and Estoril.

Timeline of Cascais

Second half of the 12th century: Cascais is a small village of fishermen and farmers, under the administration of Sintra.
7 June 1364: King Pedro I raises the village of Cascais to the status of a town, with its own jurisdiction and judges.
1488: King João II orders a defensive tower on the bay, the origin of the Citadel of Cascais.
1499: Nicolau Coelho, the first captain of Vasco da Gama's fleet to return from India, lands at Cascais on his way to inform the king in Sintra.
15 November 1514: King Manuel I grants Cascais its charter, the first text to regulate its municipal life.
11 June 1551: the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Cascais is founded with the licence of King João III.
1580: Spanish troops under the Duke of Alba land at Cascais, take the fortress and sack the town.
1589: English soldiers with the Prior of Crato, in a failed attempt to take Lisbon, rob the town.
After 1640: after the restoration of independence, a defensive line is built along the coast, with more than a dozen new forts.
1755: the Lisbon earthquake almost entirely destroys the town.
1807 to 1808: French troops occupy Cascais during the first French invasion.
1870: King Luís and Queen Maria Pia install the Royal Palace of Cascais in the Citadel, and the royal family begins to spend part of each year in the town.
1931: Casino Estoril opens, part of the resort developed by Fausto de Figueiredo.
Second World War: Cascais and Estoril receive exiled royal families and refugees.
5 March 1974: at a meeting in Cascais, the Captains' Movement approves the document "The Movement, the Armed Forces and the Nation" and becomes the Armed Forces Movement, 51 days before the revolution of 25 April 1974.
6 August 1999: the Marina de Cascais opens.
September 2009: Casa das Histórias Paula Rego opens.

People in the history of Cascais

King João II: ordered the defensive tower of 1488 on the bay of Cascais.
King Luís and Queen Maria Pia: made the Citadel a royal summer residence from 1870.
Jorge O'Neill: built the Tower of São Sebastião on the Santa Marta cove between 1897 and 1900, now the Condes de Castro Guimarães Museum.
Manuel Inácio de Castro Guimarães: left the Tower of São Sebastião and its collections to the town of Cascais in 1924.
Fausto de Figueiredo: developed Estoril as a resort from the 1910s, with the casino and the Palácio Estoril Hotel.
Paula Rego: the painter who chose Cascais in 2006 for the museum of her work.