NAMPULA-MOZAMBIQUE - The small island of Mozambique Since 1991 figure on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The port city of Mozambique, former shopping center on Route de Indias, gathers together a homogeneous architectural influences from Arabic, Indian and Portuguese origin. Since 1991 figure on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The small island of Mozambique, belonging to the state of the same name and located 4 km from the African coast, was for centuries one nerve center of international maritime trade. Since s. X until late fifteenth occupants were Arab merchants, but from the XVI became an obligatory stop on the route to India had discovered the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama. In 1507 the Portuguese built the island a strong first disappeared today, his place will now handle the Customs House. The other defensive works erected later remains the Fort of São Sebastião, built between 1558 and 1620 seconds the model of the Italian Renaissance military architecture. During the s. XVI and XVII port city of Mozambique experienced a rapid development. The trading houses stood up beside the sea along a rocky coast that allowed shallow draft boats in dry dock directly at high tide. Over the years, the city was extending around a central square, with streets irregular strokes surrounding houses flat roof. Currently has a great architectural homogeneity due to secular use of the same building materials, in particular a limestone extracted from quarries south of the island and wooden beams and structure. Incidentally, the facades with their cornices, its high ventanais rectangular and framed and its rows of pillars are characterized by the same decorative style. Flat roofs, devised to collect rainwater as a remedy to the shortage of fresh water and the adoption of a flat rectangular base that divides the space into six square dwellings contribute to this general unity both of the more modest homes, with its roof of leaves palm them Macuti representing a fourth of the city as the most sumptuous buildings. The predominant architectural influence is to the south of Portugal, despite the undisputed Arab and Indian elements. The island is now joined to the continent by a bridge three miles compliance. The first discovers that the visitor is the cemetery, surrounded by white walls. Its highlight is beyond the chapel, a childs grave, also white, sailboat-shaped, striking amid the more discreet Muslim graves. Farther away in place, rise Hindu temple and its crematorium, built in the last century, witness the cultural diversity of the island. For this enclave, first Arab, then Portuguese, have exceptional men like wanderers Fernão Mendes Pinto, who did stop in 1537 and Luiz Vaz de Camões, that there ended 1567 and 1570 his poem The Lusiads, the epic of the great Portuguese explorers of his time. The statue of the poet stands in a small square in the sea. But the colonial splendor of Mozambique, a victim of the vicissitudes of time and history, is no longer more than a memory. The abolition of slavery, which gradually ended up with a profitable trade, and later, the opening of the Suez Canal, which moved north to Route de Indias, ciade condemned to a hopeless decay. If we do not regard the fortifications, only half of the citys buildings are of stone. When the visitor enters through the streets, his gaze is immediately drawn to a majestic building of classical style and your garden with fountains and tight: it is the hospital that has to be painted white. Built in 1877, has long been the largest hospital in Africa south of the Sahara. Behind the doors ajar of bourgeois mansions can be seen from the confused mass of vegetation that formerly were maintained gardens. A cafe Mediterranean aspect, some old fans stir the air in a large room which hosts a few customers around the tables with chess boards. The menu (menu), a local artist painted on the wall remains the same as always: fish, roast beef, salad. In front of the church Mercy handle, with its resplendent façade under the sun. The temple, built in 1635 on the ruins of a church destroyed during the bombing of the city from the Dutch in 1607, is one of the oldest monuments of the island. Inside there is a small museum of sacred art and during religious services may hear the singing of the faithful and obsessive drumming drums. But the most beautiful monume! nto the island, perfectly preserved, is undoubtedly the Palace of São Paulo, with its walls of ocher and reddish color white edges. This Jesuit school, founded in 1610, destroyed by fire and rebuilt 60 years later in 1674, was long the residence of the governors of the island (1763-1935). Transformed into a museum in 1969, now houses a rich collection of European and Indian furniture from different eras that give it! airs of royal mansion. Do you find yourself attached to the sea by a square headlights century principles and a two-color deck which recalls the waves of the sea. When approaching from the sea, the city will step leaving the abodes of fishermen. On the beach visitors will see the inhabitants of poor neighborhoods struggling in their tasks. Women and girls are lining up near a fountain to take up its load of water. The boys run in all directions to finish without missing plunging into the sea amidst a joyful shouting. The population has increased greatly since 1968 in more than one 50%-mainly the cause of war and refugees who flee. One of the neuralgic center of the island is the municipal market, rigorously symmetrical quadrilateral in its corners rise as many turrets. It was built in 1887 and in their stores they sell fruit and small fish. In the shade of century-old mansions, sellers offer hikers cigarettes, biscuits, sweets and soft drinks.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:31:14 +0000
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