Classified as a National Monument, the Ribat of Arrifana is today one of the most important examples of Iberian and European Archeology. Known to date the only one in Portugal and the second one in the Iberian Peninsula, the Ribat Arrifana is a convent fortress, dedicated to the coast prayer and vigilance.
T his important monument, located in the Ponta of Atalaia, about 1 km north of the Arrifana Beach, must have been sent build around 1130, by the sufi and madi Master, Ibn Qasi, one of the leading figures in the political and religious world of al-Andalus, a contemporary of D. Afonso Henriques, with whom he established a pact against the governor of Silves, Ibn Wazir, and the Almohads, allowing the king of Portugal the conquest of territories between Mondego and Tagus.
