Whilst most of Macau's forts where built in the early 1600s in preparation against Dutch attacks, this fort was not even finished until 1866. Building started in 1849, in anticipation of a Chinese attack that never came. Fifteen years later workers took up tools again under the directions of then Governor Coehlo do Almaral and completed the fort. Following the abandonment of the fort by the Portuguese military forces in the late 1960s, the government converted the site into a hotel and tourism training school, incorporating a Portuguese restaurant staffed by trainees.