Forte de São João da Barra

A fort built in the second half of the seventeenth century to guard the entrance of the channel leading to the harbour at Tavira, which lost its military function once the channel silted up. Classified as a building of public interest, it was converted into a guest house to designs by the architect Victor Mestre. It stands in the Ria Formosa natural park, a hundred metres east of Cabanas, and has ten rooms, a round pool, bicycles and a boat to the island opposite.