The Lisbon Naval Base ( Portuguese: ''Base Naval de Lisboa''), is the main installation and operational base of the

Portuguese Navy The Portuguese Navy ( pt, Marinha Portuguesa, also known as ''Marinha de Guerra Portuguesa'' or as ''Armada Portuguesa'') is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Por ...

. Located at the former Royal Estate of Alfeite on the south bank of the

Tagus river The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to ...

's estuary, near the city of Almada, the installation is sometimes referred to as the Alfeite Naval Base. Most of the Portuguese

Naval fleet A fleet or naval fleet is a large formation of warships – the largest formation in any navy – controlled by one leader. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land. Purpose In the modern sense, fleets are usually, but not n ...

ships A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

are based at Alfeite, as well as many of its administrative, training and support services. Within its perimeter are also located the

Naval School A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

, the Naval Technologies School, the Alfeite Arsenal, the Marine corps Base and other Portuguese Navy units. The Lisbon Naval Base is an administrative entity that – besides the main naval station at Alfeite – manages several other smaller naval facilities in the region.

History

Lisbon and the neighbor Tagus estuary has always been the largest and most important

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that us ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

, since the 12th century. During the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafari ...

, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Lisbon and the Tagus became the major naval base in the World. It was from this base, that

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

set out to discover the sea route to

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Until after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, in reality there was not a single naval base, but a series of smaller bases located at various points of both banks of the Tagus. Among others, in the early 20th century, there was the Lisbon Navy Arsenal, the Doca de Belém submarine base, the Bom Sucesso

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

base, the

Vila Franca de Xira Vila Franca de Xira () is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2. Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, 32 km north-east of the Portuguese capital ...

destroyer base, the Vale do Zebro

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of s ...

base, the Alcântara Naval Barracks and the Doca da Marinha naval

quay A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locati ...

. In the late 19th century, the idea of building a new naval arsenal at the site of the Royal Estate of Alfeite arose. Several senior naval officers also began to advocate the idea of concentrating the several Navy facilities in Lisbon and the Tagus, at a single site near the future new arsenal. Construction of the new naval arsenal began in 1928 and was completed in 1937. Considered one of the largest and best equipped installations of its kind, the Alfeite Arsenal started full operation in 1938. A large naval complex – known as "the city of the Navy" – was built concurrently, to accommodate most of the ships, personnel and services of the Portuguese Navy. These were successively transferred to Alfeite up until the 1950s. Since, 3 December 1958, the '' Intendência de Marinha do Alfeite'' (Naval Intendency of Alfeite) has been the Lisbon Naval Base.

References

{{Authority control Year of establishment missing Portuguese Navy Naval installations Geography of Lisbon Military installations in Portugal Military of Portugal