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Historic Center Of Nova Sintra

Brava, Cape Verde

The city of Nova Sintra is located on the island of Brava, it was discovered in 1462. The humanization of the island began to thrive in 1620 by Portuguese settlers, from Madeira and the Azores.

In 1680, with the earthquake followed by a volcanic eruption in neighboring Fogo, many landowners, along with a few freed black couples, found refuge and settled on the island of Brava, initially in the town of Furna, closest to the volcano island.

When pirate raids became customary (17th-18th centuries), watchtowers were built at the far end of the bay and more sheltered places were sought, with a higher location, to protect from looters. At that time the main population center appeared: Vila da Nova Sintra.

The island's economic plan was, at the time, on the fringes of slave trade, arousing other interests when the English navigator George Roberts discovered, around 1720, the urchin much appreciated as a raw material for dyeing textiles. Discovery that launched the island Brava into the mercantilist bustle of the modern world.

The island of Brava, for having an exceptionally healthy climate, which deserved the name of Paradise of the Archipelago, was once chosen frequently for residence of the governors-general. These were the cases of the governor and naval officer João Fontes Pereira de Melo who governed Cape Verde, from 1839 to 1842, from Ilha Brava, due to the unhealthiness that existed in Praia and D. José Miguel de Noronha who, in 1845, accompanied by 50 employees, he fled the city of Praia to Brava, due to yellow fever, taking the press of the Official Bulletin.

In fact, the question of the unhealthiness of Praia meant that, in 1849, the governor transferred all the employees of the Secretary-General and Accountancy to Ilha Brava. There, the Junta da Fazenda, the Government Council, the Agriculture Board and the Higher Education Council started to function.

This roaming of the capital of Cape Verde would only be definitively resolved in 1855, with the capital being established in Praia, taking into account the claims by the Praia council, and due to the reduced size of Brava. At this time, the island of Brava was home to the main school of Cape Verde, which was inaugurated in 1848, and received students from all the islands and even from neighboring countries on the African coast such as Guinea-Bissau.

On March 16, 2016, it was registered on the Cape Verde Indicative List for UNESCO, based on criteria IV and VI.

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