Fort of the Church of São Mateus da Calheta

Fort of the Church of São Mateus da Calheta (Forte da Igreja de São Mateus da Calheta)
Church Fort, Fort of the Church
Fort (Forte)
Official name: Forte da Igreja de São Mateus da Calheta
Named for: Church of São Mateus da Calheta
Nickname: Forte da Igreja
Country	Portugal
Region	Azores
Group	Central
Island	Terceira
Municipality	Angra do Heroísmo
Location	São Mateus da Calheta
- elevation	6 m (20 ft)
- coordinates	38°39′18″N 27°16′20″W / 38.65500°N 27.27222°W / 38.65500; -27.27222Coordinates: 38°39′18″N 27°16′20″W / 38.65500°N 27.27222°W / 38.65500; -27.27222
Architects	Tommaso Benedetto de Pesaro
Style	Medieval
Material	Basalt
Origin	1567
- Initiated	1580
Abandoned	28 August 1893
Owner	Portuguese Republic
For public	Public
Management	Direção Regional de Cultura
Operator	Junta de Freguesia de São Mateus da Calheta
Status	Unclassified
Location of the fort within the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo

The Fort of the Church São Mateus da Calheta (Portuguese: Forte da Igreja de São Mateus da Calheta), also referred to as the Forte da Igreja (Church Fort or Fort of the Church), are the coastal ruins of a 16th-century fort situated in the civil parishof São Mateus da Calheta, municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, on the Portuguese island of Terceira, in the archipelago of the Azores. It was destroyed, along with the church, in 1893 during a cyclone; while the church was eventually reconstructed some years later (the parochial Church of São Mateus da Calheta), the fort was abandoned and left to ruin.

The Fort of São Mateus was one of the first bastions constructed during the context of the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580, authorized by then-magistrate Ciprião de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos, under the plans for the island elaborated by Tommaso Benedetto de Pesaro in 1567. This followed an attack by French corsair Pierre Bertrand de Montluc on Funchal (in October 1566), and a tentative attempt during the same year on Angra (which had been repelled):

Drummond later recorded:

It was there, during the history of the parish of São Mateus, that the carracks found landfall on their return from the Indies, in search of the port of Angra.

During the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1714) the fort was referred to as the Redoubt of São Mateus (Portuguese: O Reduto de S. Matheus), in report dated 1710.

With the establishment of the Captaincy-General of the Azores, an evaluation of the fort, in 1767, found:

A codex to this analysis was provided by adjunte Manoel Correa Branco (in 1776) who indicated that no public works were necessary.

During the Liberal War, the fort continued to be an important strategic fortification, its plan formalized in the collection of plans developed by José Rodrigo de Almeida, in the Gabinete de Estudos de Arquitetura e Engenharia Militar (Cabinet for Architectural Studies and Military Engineering), in Lisbon.