Constructed during the course of the 1580 Succession Crisis by the Azorean Corregedor, Ciprião de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos, it was based on the plan elaborated by Tommaso Benedetto in 1567, after attacks by French corsairPierre Bertrand de Montluc on Funchal and the attempt on Angra the same year: Francisco Drummond noted: Drummond went on to note, that the fort was reconstructed in 1653, at the expense of the municipal council, following damage caused by waves crashing along the coast, at a time when 50 known pirate ships circled the waters of the archipelago. During the context of the War of Spanish Succession the fort was referred to as O Forte das Caninas, in the Fortificações nos Açores existentes em 1710. With the installation of the Captaincy-General of the Azores, a 1767 report on the fort, indicated: The fort was referred to as 7. Fort of the Caninas, in the report Revista aos fortes que defendem a costa da ilha Terceira by the adjunct-of-orders, Manoel Correa Branco, in 1776, who described the fort in these terms: The Relação of Field Marshall Baron of Bastos suggested that the fortress was unable to perform its duties. By 1881, the fort was already abandoned and used to graze goats. This did not improve, as maritime erosion escalated and the walls fell into ruin. In the context of the Second World War, a military post was erected on the site and portions of the walls were used to build a small building to garrison troops. One of the walls of this building remains intact.
Architecture
The fort is located on a dominant position along the coast, consisting of a fortification built to protect the island from pirate and privateer attacks, crossing fire with the Fort of the Cavalas, located in the Bay of Salga and the entrance to the Bay of Mós. The bastion consists of an irregular polygon, adapted to the terrain constructed of masonry. The fort's fortification wall cornerstones where constructed of basalt, while other 16th centuryforts in archipelago were constructed of tuff stones: a softer stone, that minimized the effects of the shells fired by attackers. The plan had space to support five artillery pieces, with two towers for fusiliers and a vaulted magazine. On the outside of the fort, to the interior left, is the barracks.
