page_title: Portuguese Riviera
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Riviera / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: DSC_0241
context_page_description: The Portuguese Riviera is the affluent coastal region to the west of Lisbon, Portugal, centered on the coastal cities of Cascais, Estoril, and Sintra. It is coterminous with the Estoril Coast and occasionally known as the Costa do Sol. The region is internationally known as a luxury destination for its history as a home of the wealthy, the famous, and European royalty.
  Both Cascais and Sintra consistently rank among the richest municipalities in Portugal.
  Cascais's history as a cosmopolitan center originates in the 1870s, when King Luís I of Portugal and the Portuguese royal family made the seaside town his summer residence, thus attracting members of Portugal's aristocracy, who established a summer community there. During World War II and the Post-War period, the area's royal affiliations intensified, as many heads of European royal houses and deposed monarchs, including King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and King Umberto II of Italy made their home in Cascais and Estoril, finding refuge in Portugal's neutrality in the war or from tense political situations in their own countries.
context_section_description: During the Second World War, the region was the centre of spies and diplomatic secrecy, situations that provided the region with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and sophistication. Owing to the vision of Fausto Cardoso de Figueiredo and his business partner Augusto Carreira de Sousa, it became an international tourist destination both during and after the Second World War.
  In July 1940, Edward, Duke of Windsor (former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom) and his wife, Wallis Simpson, moved to Estoril, where they lived at first in the home of Ricardo de Espírito Santo, a Portuguese banker with both British and German contacts.
  During that time, several dignitaries and exiles came to Estoril: Miklós Horthy, the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (lived and died in exile after the Second World War); the Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona (father of Juan Carlos I of Spain) and the King resided in the territory, as did Umberto II of Italy and Carol II of Romania.
  It was also in this location that former Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar had a summer house. It was Salazar who ordered the construction of the E.N.6 motorway, more commonly referred to as the Avenida Marginal, in order for him to quickly travel by car between Cascais and Lisbon (until then the accessway was nothing more than a dirt road, where traffic could only circulate at low velocities and make frequent stops). The roadway permitted the dictator to travel rapidly, and with fewer stops, it was not possible for him to be recognized easily in transit.
  Complementing the jet-set community that prospered in the region, Casino Estoril, Europe's largest casino, was founded in 1958.
caption: Casino Estoril, with its gardens facing the Atlantic Ocean is Europe's largest casino.
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