 Gaspar Corte-Real, a nobleman and resident of this area, claimed to have discovered the land now known as Newfoundland in 1500, beginning many of the Portuguese ventures onto the Grand Banks in search of codfish.The oldest religious place of worship in Fuseta, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Carmo ("Our Lady of Carmo") existed by 1758.As the population grew, the Bishop of the Algarve, D. Francisco Gomes de Avelar, was petitioned to grant the ecumenical independence of the parish, which had previously been included in Moncarapacho.