Fortaleza de Araçatuba – Ponta do Papagaio

In front of the Fortress of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Araçatuba, built by the Portuguese, you can see salemas, donzelas, marimbaus, anemones, garoupas, sargentinhos and butterflyfish.

The fortress was the fourth and last one conceived by the Portuguese brigadier and military engineer José da Silva Paes, and the only one intended to protect the entrance to the Baía Sul. It was the fourth piece of the initial defence system of the Ilha de Santa Catarina against foreign incursions, mainly Spanish, and it also served as a prison. In 1839, its soldiers mutinied and, allied with the rebels of the Farroupilha Revolution, handed over the ammunition and the fortress to them. For nine years it was commanded by Francisco dos Santos Xavier, “Xavier das Conchas”, a craftsman of ornaments made with shells, feathers and scales.

The islet is made of granite cut by diabase dikes, fissures through which lava flowed, and both stones were used to build the fortress. It was only listed as heritage in 1980. In August 2002, strong winds and violently rough seas destroyed the equipment that was installing the pier, which made both the pier works and the restoration unfeasible, and the fortress remains in ruins. In the region, the name Naufragados comes from historical shipwrecks at the southern bar, some known only from accounts: a caravel of Solis in 1516, the fleet of Acuña in 1525 and a flagship of Caboto in 1526.