General Overview

This text was originally written by the respective coordinator for the print edition as a general introduction to the volume for the part of the globe in question; the possibility of updating it was left to each author’s discretion. It is complemented by texts from the same author concerning each of the geographic subdivisions in which the volume’s entries were grouped.

 

Common features of the Portuguese heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Contrary to the situation in Brazil, the Orient and the region of Islam, the Portuguese heritage in southern and Central Africa consists of a discontinuous, heterogeneous and fragmented array. It is composed of two distinct kinds of territoriality – one formed by two vast, united and continental territories; and another formed by several scattered areas, spread across two oceans. These territories also present constructions from two important eras – the Modern and the Contemporary dominated by the built heritage in the terms of quantity, in the last 50 years of colonial domination.

The mainstream contemporary scope of the existing heritage conveys specific characteristics to the overall area, namely the increase in complexity inherent in territories with a denser colonization, with larger cities, more scattered than the cities of the Modern Age, and more diverse material contents. These aspects, in turn, involve problems and special care when analysing the historical process in very recent times. For example, we can mention the famous cases of contemporary urbanistic programs in major cities and within the framework of less important cities, from Maputo to Lichinga, from Namibe to Lubango. Similar cases can be found in architecture, involving the participation of various well-qualified architects from different schools. These innovative cases coexist alongside the examples of older cities worthy of mention, such as Luanda, Benguela, Island of Mozambique, São Tomé, and their respective architecture.

On the other hand, the predominance of contemporary buildings explains why we find ourselves in a so-called “intermediary stage” of historical knowledge about the Portuguese heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa, that is, a case of determination and identification of the territories it encompasses, with a gradual insight into their urban systems and architectural elements, a situation of research, definition and characterization of documents and of many of their monuments. Such a context discourages major overall interpretations, or at least requires special care in that kind of approach. Meanwhile, as original research by experts on PALOPs (Lusophone African countries) seems promising, we thought it was important to include it within the framework of this project.

The decision to regard Sub-Saharan Africa as an autonomous area for the Portuguese legacy was due to the fact that it had features of its own, in comparison with other areas of Portuguese influence such as Brazil or the Orient: 1) the length of colonial settlement in this area (starting in the 15th century, continued, developed and consolidated throughout the 19th century, up to the late 20th century – which was not the case of Brazil, or only took place in the Orient in a residual manner; 2) the distinct types of encroachment. Whereas in the 15th and 16th centuries African colonization played a secondary role in the so-called First Empire (mainly with the setting up of isolated trading posts and definition of maritime routes), the 17th and 18th centuries saw, in a second phase, some incursion into the interior along the course of the main rivers, particularly in Angola and Mozambique (with the advance of colonization over the regions of Cuanza and Zambezi), and the gradual settlement in virtually all the islands of Cape Verde, and also the Pombaline effort of urban restructuration in Príncipe Island. Finally, with the emergence of the so-called Third Empire the definition of several vast territorial areas in Angola and Mozambique was developed and consolidated. This was accomplished through a large number of infrastructural networks, urban constructions and resultant architectonic structures, which defined the current urban network of both countries; 3) the relative secular, institutional, sociopolitical and cultural continuity during almost 500 years, contrary to what happened in Portuguese America or in the Orient (Arabia, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and the Far East) which enabled colonial propaganda from the 19th and 20th centuries, from liberal constitutionalism to salazarism, to create and promote the image of the so-called “Portuguese Africa”.

Duration, diversity, and continuity are thus the features that define the geographical area and give an original character to the urban and architectural remnants of Portuguese influence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Colonial background

The length of Portuguese intervention of over half a millennium (starting with the initial occupation of Cape Verde since the 1460s, or the construction of the trading post of Arguin, in Mauritania, from 1455-1461, up to the last political presence in 1975) explains some of the differences that distinguish Portuguese Africa from the colonial empires of the several other European countries in that continent. So while, on the one hand, the Portuguese colonial presence began long before and ended after all others did, on the other hand, it was more diverse in the types of territories encompassed – archipelagos and vast territorial areas, broad coastlines and penetrations into river basins.

Portuguese colonialism has been analysed by many writers and researchers in connection with other colonial territories under European control. It is necessary to mention those studies that have guided our interpretation, taking into account the urban-architectural framework and the territorially defined areas that were a direct result of it: Lugar da Cidade Portuguesa (Fernandes, 1987), which compares the Hispanic and Portuguese layouts for cities and urban areas, and especially O Império Colonial Português (Portuguese Colonial Empire) (Boxer, 1969), which focuses on the contrasts between the Portuguese and the Dutch spheres. From a more directly African perspective we must point out the various works by René Pélissier on comparative Euro-Afro-colonial historiography (1981, 2006), especially those which analyse the Portuguese, Hispanic and French experiences. More recently, the works by the Institut National du Patrimoine/INP (Architecture, 2006), which update information and comparative studies in terms of general colonial architecture based on Europe.

 

Portuguese specifics within the political and socio-economic framework

In their overseas expansion process, the Portuguese indeed created a series of urban architectonic structures. These were well recognizable as a whole because they had been made within the framework of a particular culture, as a south-western European derivation, politically authoritative and centralist, and socially organized (within the Christian-Catholic ideology, in the initial continuation from late-medieval society). This culture, however, was open to pragmatic adaptation, to the exploration of new territories, and their urban or proto-urban construction was using traditional materials (recourse to the classical archetype of European culture, a dominant use of stone, ceramic materials, and use of wood as an accessory, decorative, or structural material).

Therefore, although a 15th century city like Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Cape Verde) was significantly different from Lobito (Angola), created in the early 20th century, there are many aspects in terms of settlement, structural characteristics, urban layout as well as in the understanding of the scale of architecture that remains identifiable, and not significantly changed over so many centuries.

In order to define the material legacy of the Afro-Portuguese experience it is necessary, first, to mention the issue of the so-called “cultural transfers”, a constant phenomenon of Portuguese Expansion, connected with miscegenation (which did not prevent the process of class domination and corresponding social conflicts). Secondly, the fact that Portugal was a small territory located on the periphery of Europe, with scant resources and few inhabitants, and with an administration that was remote but centralized. These conditions heightened the processes of ethno-social convergence of the existing communities, thus becoming a way of solving their own structural difficulties. Thus new communities were created, such as that of Cape Verde, in an archipelago populated mainly by mestizos, “invented” out of nowhere, which would later serve as a source of supply of workmen and technicians for other Portuguese-African territories, such as the mainland territories of Angola and Mozambique. Thus the settlement of Euro-African populations was based on agro-commercial systems, as witnessed in some river basins (Cuanza and Zambezi), where they ensured territorial domination. Thus the rare but sublime “culture gathering” of the micro-areas of Ibo or of the Island of Mozambique enabled the creation of extremely beautiful built areas, resistant to secular erosion (in a rare synthesis or coexistence – not without some “structural violence” – by mixing African, Indian, Hindu and Islamic cultures and ethnicities with the European.

More recently, both in the 19th century and the Salazar era (1930-1970), it was common for entire communities to relocate, with government support, from remote areas of Iberian Portugal or from existing colonial territories, to form new colonies in Africa. Consider the cases of Moçâmedes/Namibe (built by Portuguese-Brazilian and Algarve immigrants) or of Sá da Bandeira/Lubango (with Madeira-born settlers); or, in the mid-twentieth century, of the “farming colonies” of the Cunene and Limpopo rivers, settled by families from the Beira regions and other agricultural regions of European Portugal.

Another structuring aspect in the socio-political and economic field was the slave trade. Portugal pioneered and played a leading role in the capture, sale and exploitation of black men between Africa and Brazil on the one hand, and between Africa and India on the other. Portugal thus created a true exchange system and constant source of supply to sustain Brazilian sugarcane plantations or to support the activities, possessions and trade from the East, from India to Japan. This system was based on two main centres: the Gulf of Guinea and Angola – in their direct connections with Brazil; and Mozambique and the Eastern Africa region – in conjunction with the Portuguese Estado da India. The slave trade also had effects on the early forms of Portuguese occupation. Therefore, in the stage that lasted until the mid-nineteenth century, the system of insular and territorial encroachment into these African territories favoured the creation of militarily protected areas for the supply of “goods”. These areas were based on coastal and fluvial fortresses and forts, which aimed at providing defence against the natives and against European (mainly Dutch) competition. The military areas were sometimes connected to small nuclei, trading posts, towns and even cities, where trade took place: from Elmina to Luanda, from Cape Verde to the Island of Mozambique. The Fort Saint John the Baptist of Ouidah, although built in the late period, bears witness to the capstone of this military-commercial logic in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Portuguese adhered to the European imperialist movement that created the modern colonial system as late as the second half of the 19th century. This system was based on the systematic exploitation of economic resources and the effective (military and fiscal) occupation of the territory. Therefore, the Portuguese attempted to create new commercial and productive alternatives (the supply of commercial steam navigation in Cape Verde; agricultural markets in São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Mozambique such as cocoa and coffee, cotton, tea, etc.) and eventually considered continental African areas as a whole – in a new perspective of Portuguese-African and colonial reality which was partially successful. Hence the gradual diversification of the varied Portuguese-colonial areas, responsible for the various political destinies of the present day African countries, according to the more or less strong and intense influences of local cultures and natives, or of neighbouring colonial domination.

Therefore, we must distinguish the following cases: 1) in the regions of sparse Portuguese presence or those later abandoned (such as Ethiopia, Mombasa, Goreia, Elmina, and several areas of the Gulf of Guinea), the current remains are scattered, often mere ruins. These remains, generally subjected to more recent influences and changes, combine Portuguese elements with those of other cultures (European or local); 2) in the regions with a long-lasting Portuguese settlement (islands of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, to Guinea-Bissau), or more recently occupied and structured, but based on older centres (such as Angola and Mozambique), the influence of the two major colonial powers in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries (English and French) resulted in a gradual differentiation: in Guinea-Bissau and Angola by means of Francophone culture; in Mozambique through British and South- African (of Anglophone expression) influence; in the islands, at the mercy of insular characteristics, to a lesser extent; 3) in micro-areas connected to ancient cultures, prior to the 15th century Portuguese presence, the characteristics of connection with those ancient cultures remain – as is the case of the areas of former Islamic colonization: Guinea-Bissau, northern Mozambique (Ibo and Island of Mozambique); 4) finally, as a side effect, there are areas of Afro-Portuguese influence where there was a sort of “freedom” from Portuguese action. This exploitation, no longer controlled by institutional entities (state, church), was led by individual figures, adventurers, such as the lançados of the Guinea coast, traders and armed men who, in defiance of the Portuguese crown, acted in that area for personal purposes, particularly throughout the 16th and 17th centuries; hence the extreme cases in the early 19th century of the “return” of Afro-Brazilian descendants to Islamic urban communities (in Lagos, Nigeria, or Porto Novo, in present day Benin), where Portuguese quarters and their mosques showed, by the mid-nineteenth century, this kind of revival of Portuguese-based culture, by means of (minority but active) communities of Afro-Brazilian traders and industrialists.

 

Characterization of architecture and urbanism of Portuguese influence from a chronological and spatial perspective

1450-1820, “trade and the sea”

Settlements, towns, trading posts and cities

In the first three centuries of colonization Portuguese influence in Sub-Saharan Africa had similar characteristics to those in India, Brazil, the Far East and Oceania. According to the thalassocratic model of control of the seas and of trade support areas, the Portuguese settlements were interested in small-sized coastal urban areas, sometimes limited to a “coastal stronghold”, or to a trading post, or even to small towns which, in functional and symbolic terms, using scant human and financial resources, had to play a role analogous to that of cities.

Therefore, between the 15th and 18th centuries, the African Atlantic and Indian Ocean saw a gradual and traditional urban occupation in the transitional Medieval-Renaissance type, adopted or perfected by Portugal. The following are their main structures: 1) coastal, insular, littoral, or continental urbanism, connected to trade and transatlantic routes, aimed at a good defense in simple re-supply posts which are strategically located; 2) simple cities and small towns, with an organic internal organization, pragmatic plans of gradual definition, based on the urban culture of Medieval-Renaissance Mediterranean Europe; 3) two subtypes of occupation areas, within the above-mentioned model: territorial organization along continental coastlines (Gulf of Guinea, coast of Angola, etc.); and the presence in groups of more or less coastal archipelagos or islands (Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe).

The issue of choosing between a continental and an insular occupation was not devoid of complementarities: on the one hand the continental presence was more complex and difficult to maintain, given the constant state of war or conflict with the native inhabitants; but the need to penetrate into those territories was equally strong because they were the source of the greater human, mineral, or crop resources that colonizers sought to obtain. On the other, insular occupation was more easily defensible by virtue of their geographical isolation and small scale, although the available resources were limited. The commercial relationship that united these trading posts formed a network of sequential routes, supported in the communities that were settled there and based on the combined perspective of alternance voyages between islands and continent. From Madeira one could follow the route to Cape Verde and to the western African coast, then to southwest, because of Atlantic winds, and then to cape of Good Hope and Indian Ocean – or, to east, to Guinea and its Gulf, and from this point – with a resupply stop in São Tomé and Príncipe – until reaching Angola; there was the starting point of a longer voyage to Mozambique, and, along its littoral and the northeastern coast of Africa, the crossing was made to the Indies. On return, the same route was made in reverse, except for the necessary passage through the isolated islands of the south Atlantic (Saint Helena, etc.) and via the Azores, due to Atlantic currents.

This process of constant passage/travel between coasts and islands had interesting results as the centuries went by: for instance, the training of local technical personnel, composed of agents who were culturally more able to perform their duties in the colonial context, a training that was fueled by miscegenation (Cape Verde is the main example). The five archipelagos of so-called Macaronesia were, therefore, involved in the colonization and urbanization of Sub-Saharan Africa: from the Azores to Madeira (without forgetting the Canary Islands, with one quarter of the population composed of Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries), from Madeira to Cape Verde, and from there to São Tomé – people from these archipelagos served as the continental anchorage so as to establish a tight hold inside Guiné and Angola. On the east coast, belonging for centuries to the Portuguese Estado da India, the Island of Mozambique and, to a smaller extent, Zanzibar, played similar roles both as defensive and expansion centres for the nearby mainland.

From the point of view of urban structures this scant insular or coastal Portuguese Africa, from the 15th to the 18th centuries, included the archipelago of Cape Verde, with the old cities of Ribeira Grande (founded in the 15th century, and elevated to a city status in 1533) and of Praia (1770), in the island of Santiago (besides a few settlements in Fogo, or in Boa Vista), as well as the villages of Cacheu (1605) and Bissau (1766) in Guinea, in addition to the two cities of São Tomé and Príncipe – São Tomé (from the late 15th century, elevated to a city status in 1535) and Santo António do Príncipe (with a design revamped in the 18th century), in each island of this archipelago with two poles.

In Angola the urban contributions from this era were basically the mythic São Salvador do Congo/M’banza Congo, the capital São Paulo de Assunção de Luanda (founded in 1575), some proto-urban settlements, from Luanda, along the Quanza River (between fortresses and towns), Benguela (1617) and Novo Redondo/Sumbe (1761). Prominent in Mozambique were the Island (1509), Sofala (1505), Quelimane (1761) and Inhambane, of 1730 – besides the penetrations through Zambezi, from Chinde to Tete (1761), and Zumbo, connected to the establishment of agricultural and commercial prazos (estates).

Another characteristic of the towns with an urban nature from this historical stage, besides adopting the same model of coastal settlement, was the fact that they were located in sheltered bays and had an organic structure. That is the case of the cities of Ribeira Grande and Praia (Cape Verde), with a later, more geometric expansion of Praia; Island and Sofala (Mozambique), wherein Sofala was basically a fortress; São Tomé and Santo António (São Tomé and Príncipe); Luanda (Angola); Cacheu (by the river) and Bissau (Guinea) – at this stage the occupation of Bissau corresponded to not much more than a fortification. It should also be emphasized that the common establishment of two cities polarized the arrangement of space in each one of these territories: either because the city initially created did not “work out” (Cape Verde) or due to the needs of occupation and defense of each island (São Tomé and Príncipe) or of that of the vast coastline (Island of Mozambique and Sofala), or because of growing territorial expansion (Angola).

Early urban settlements

The ten islands of Cape Verde – sub-tropical and arid, sparsely populated since their discovery in the second half of the 15th century (around 1460) – represented for centuries a useful stopover on the long transatlantic crossings and in the connection with the African coast. Until the 18th century, urban occupation was basically limited to Ribeira Grande on the Island of Santiago, a role later fulfilled by the town of Praia. Known nowadays as the “Cidade Velha” (‘Old City’) of Santiago, it was the first European city in Africa. Emerging in the 15th century, it was stretched along a stream carved out between valleys, for protection and water supply – set in an arid and inhospitable land, which explains why its expansion was never sound or sustainable, and why it was eventually abandoned from the 18th century, with the transfer of the capital to the city of Praia.

Although most of the small towns of the remaining Cape Verde islands were established relatively recently – from the late 18th century (Sal Rei, in Boa Vista) to the 20th century, there are some older towns. This is the case of São Filipe, in Fogo Island, created in 1510, with the Manueline grant of the captaincy (capitania) to Fernão Gomes, which resulted in its becoming the main pole of the island.

Located near the Equator, São Tomé Island was discovered, according to tradition, on the feast day of São Tomé, in 1470, by João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar. Several royal grants, donatarias (land grants), were aimed at beginning its colonization, which was difficult due to the natural and weather conditions, and which involved settlers coming from varied locations. The main settlement, established in Ana Ambó in 1485, was moved to the bay of Ana Chaves in 1493. A new grant to Fernando de Melo, in 1500, must have enabled the start of the urbanization of the town, named São Tomé – although in 1504 there had already been a parish of Our Lady of Grace. The year 1534 saw the creation of the diocese of São Tomé (the parish of Our Lady of Grace then became a diocesan cathedral), with jurisdiction over the four islands of the Gulf of Guinea (including the islands of Príncipe, Annobon and Fernando Pó), over Saint Helena, and over Africa, stretching from Cape Palmas to Congo. In this context, São Tomé was elevated to a city status in 1535. Of a more modest nature, the city of Santo António, created in 1502 in the neighbouring Príncipe Island, had a far worse fate, stagnating for centuries as a micro-town.

On the other side of Africa, to the east, the Portuguese who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and established the maritime and commercial route to India sought to create, at the turn of the 15th century, some trading posts and areas for commercial and military control. The occupation of the coastal Island of Mozambique, off the north of the present day country, took place in this context. The island soon took on a gentile micro-urban nature. The Portuguese established on this island from 1502-1507, a small urban settlement, supported by a mighty fortification, built in the second half of the 16th century.

These three major and older Portuguese-African cities developed along the lines of the Portuguese model for cities by the beginning of the Expansion period. With insular and coastal locations and an organic layout, there were attempts to site them near sources of drinking water: Ribeira Grande (‘the great stream’), as indicated by the name, ran along a course of fresh water (but it was simply an intermittent stream, only filled with water in the rainy season), in a structure perpendicular to the bay; São Tomé extended along and fronted a wide north facing bay to benefit from the cooling breezes and was traversed by a stream with abundant water; finally, the Island of Mozambique, with a micro-settlement gathered around the main square facing northeast, used the old and tested traditional methods for rainwater collection (terraces, pipelines and cisterns) to solve water shortage.

In addition to the aspects of settlement, we must highlight the importance of the institutions and their corresponding buildings that defined the fundamental urban centrality of an overseas town of the time: the churchyard; the parade ground with a protective fortification; the square of the governor’s house, that of the town hall and that of the Misericórdia (which included the corresponding hospital), ensuring political, civic and charitable activities respectively; the customs house which ensured commercial control; and, besides the houses along the main Rua Direita, the complementary nuclei of convents (from the mendicants to the Jesuits). Showing the broader nature of this type of settlement, consider the similarity between the African Island of Mozambique and that of Diu, in the Indian Gujarat: in terms of location (both coastal islands), their small size, the softening aspect of the beaches, the internal structure that Portuguese colonizers gave them (the fortified “tip” next to European urban area, alongside Islamic and Hindu quarters) and, finally, the common architectural style, which is said to have been achieved by the presence of stonemasons and merchants from Diu on the Island of Mozambique. Due to the high aesthetic quality achieved in both cases, they are a fine example of secular urban-architectural transference, executed with complete success.

Urban settlements in the transition from the 16th to the 17th century

Continuing this urbanization process as a means of controlling maritime and commercial traffic, other cities were established, between the late 16th century and the early 17th century – the Joanine-Sebastian and Philippine dynastic periods. It is worth mentioning Luanda, the essential base for the domination of Angola, Benguela, in the continuation of occupation of the Angolan coast to the south of Luanda, and Cacheu, in present day Guinea- Bissau. São Paulo de Luanda, as the first and main town created in 1575-1576, was a city of significant size; it underwent rapid growth in the 17th and 18th centuries, clearly corresponding to a settlement typical of the Portuguese city model of the Expansion period.

The second city in terms of historical importance, whose settlement was aimed at ensuring the control of the central coastal area of Angola, São Filipe de Benguela was created in the 17th century (in 1617-1619, by Manuel Cerveira Pereira), overlooking the bay of Santo António or of Vacas. It was an essential hub for the slave trade and its netlike urban layout spread across a flat area contrasted with that of Luanda. It is also worth mentioning in present day Angola, to the north, inland of Luanda, but belonging originally to the kingdom of Congo (Christianised from the 16th century onwards, but preserving its independence), the city of São Salvador do Congo (present day Mbanka Congo), which was established in the capital built by natives from the 14th century onwards; a sign of the Portuguese presence symbolically visible into the construction of a church in 1549, elevated to cathedral status in 1596. Cacheu is located in the northeast of present day Guinea-Bissau, on the left bank of the eponymous river. It was a port established in 1588, elevated to vila status (town) in 1605, and was the first capital of the territory. Its structure, of small size, has basic proto-urban characteristics. The economy of the region, initially based on the slave trade, later shifted to agriculture, with the cultivation of leguminous plants, which gave a new boost to the surrounding territory. Comparing the two cities mentioned above we notice the development and local use of the type of coastal city of expansion overlooking a bay – with a more irregular fabric in the case of Luanda (due to the regional relief, the upper and lower town being physically and morphologically distinct, as was the case of the seat of the General Government of Brazil, the city of São Salvador da Bahia) – and those with a more regular layout, as on the plain of Benguela.

As for the built heritage that derived from the institutional roles played by these two cities, they also had in common: the existence of a church or cathedral in its own square; the fortification (although demolished in the 19th century, in Benguela’s case), or group of fortifications (in Luanda’s case, given its extent and importance); the layout of the square of the Government Palace and that of the Town Hall and the Customs House; lastly, the existence of a group of traditional houses distributed throughout the settlement which gave a residential nature to the central areas of both cities.

New cities with a more geometric layout or redesigned in the 18th century

The Pombaline period was an era of profound reform and attempts at modernization, which had effects on the urbanization of the various overseas territories. This period saw the creation of new towns as well as the redesign, reconstruction and restructuring of existing ones. We can point out at this stage: the move of the Cape Verde capital to Praia (1770), the reform and reconstruction of Santo António do Príncipe (1753), the launch of the urbanization of Bissau, starting with its fortress (1766); the establishment of Novo Redondo (1769, present day Sumbe) in Angola, and in Mozambique, mainly marked by the corresponding fortifications, the new or redesigned towns of Quelimane (1763) near the coast, the towns of Sena and Tete (1761) in the interior, which ensured territorial control along the Zambezi, and further south, the coastal Inhambane (1764). At the northern extremity of Mozambique, Ibo (1763) followed the strategy of domination of the coastline. In these nuclei, a notable change regarding previous stages took place: although the system of coastal urban settlement in a sheltered bay (or on river banks, as for the two towns of the interior) remained, the emerging urban fabric usually having a more rigorous grid model. That model leads to the type of a geometric quadrangular layout characteristic of the Pombaline period; it can be found in the Portugal of the rebuilt Lisbon and in Vila Real de Santo António, or in other overseas locations, such as in the contemporary plans for several new cities of Mato Grosso (Brazil) or for the unfulfilled projects for the reconstruction of Old Goa or construction of Panaji/New Goa in India. In effect the Pombaline period (c. 1750-1780) which extended into the following era of Queen Maria I mirrors the existence (although short-lived) of a “global strategic vision”, a modernizing, enterprising and royalist vision for Portuguese colonial areas, based on processes of urbanization and architectural construction.

On the African continent, the Pombaline enterprise was guided by similar criteria, distributed along the various existing geo-strategic fronts: in the islands of Cape Verde and of São Tomé and Príncipe, renovating the political-administrative management system with the decision for the transfer of the corresponding capitals; in Angola, with the dynamic governor Sousa Coutinho modernizing urban facilities (palace, public barn, customs house), experimenting with a proto-industrialization process (the Iron Factory in Nova Oeiras), and, above all, seeking territorial extension with Novo Redondo. In Mozambique 18th century enterprise was also impressive: on the one hand, through the administrative autonomy of the territory in relation to the Estado da India through the establishment of a new government centre on the Island of Mozambique (1759); on the other with the penetration into the interior up the Zambezi River, with Sena, Tete and Zumbo (this one from early 18th century) defining a new border (which was to prove essential a hundred years later in determining of the limits of the colony in the face of European imperialist competitors), and in the broadening of coastal control to the north (with Ibo), and to the south with the reinforced/re-establishment of Quelimane and of Inhambane. The later establishment of Lourenço Marques in the southern extremity in the 19th century was due in large measure to this enlightened territorial policy.

Let us characterize then the major urban undertakings. The Vila da Praia de Santa Maria followed the Cidade Velha da Ribeira Grande de Santiago as the main administrative centre for Cape Verde in the Pombaline period, considering that in 1769-1770 the capital had been transfered from Ribeira Grande, although the Town Hall, the Cabido (church representative) and the courthouse remained. In 1833-1835 the corresponding municipality was established. Also in Cape Verde, on the north coast of Santiago, Tarrafal was established around a central rectangular square (centered on the church) opening onto two parallel streets, evoking the street layout of two other small proto-urban sites that must have been more or less contemporary: Porto Covo, in Alentejo (Portugal), and Novo Redondo, in Angola – both of Pombaline foundation or inspiration besides evoking the simple urban model, with a square and two geometrically arranged streets, of the oldest known layouts of the villages of Praia and of Luz/Mindelo.

Santo António do Príncipe must have been greatly rebuilt also in the 18th century phase. In 1753 a Pombaline royal charter elevated Santo António to city status, and it became the seat of the general government of the islands, due to misrule in São Tomé. In order to do this the captaincy was abolished. The island passed into crown hands and the counts of Príncipe Island were honoured with the title of the counts of Lumiares. The little city of Santo António, established in the 16th century, thus became the capital of the two islands from the mid-eighteenth century until 1852, the year that São Tomé regained that status.

Bissau consists of a city with a relatively recent and geometric plan, whose layout started with the fortress of Amura. In effect, Bissau arose in 1766, with the fortress of Saint Joseph of Amura (initially in 1696).

Novo Redondo, present day Sumbe (in Cuanza Sul), originated in the fortress of Gunza- Cabolo (1762) and became a town in 1769. Connected to the slave trade, it had around 60 cubatas (shacks) in 1846. More recent plans show a central area with a road development, possibly in an early stage, along an extended axis, with two parallel streets, evoking the urban fabric of the small towns of Tarrafal (Santiago de Cabo Verde) and Porto Covo (Alentejo, Portugal).

In Mozambique, Quelimane emerged from a 16th century trading post (1544), being developed in the Pombaline period. It became a town in 1763. Its urban structure presents a grid, fronting a sheltered coastline, whose relative geometry as well as its formal and functional features evoke the genesis of 18th and 19th century developments. Due to its urban form (a widespread grid, relatively regular and open), and its location within the territory (approximately in the middle of the coastline), it evokes the city of Benguela, in Angola.

Sena was a former fortification, on the banks of the Zambezi River, built between 1572 and 1590 to ensure the commercial route to the kingdom of Monomotapa. In 1761 it was granted town status by royal charter. In an inland region, Tete was originally established at the Fort Saint James the Greater, built in 1576 and later rebuilt in 1686 and then in the 19th century. Being a crucial location for Mozambique´s penetration into the valley of the Zambezi River, Tete gradually became the local administrative and defence centre. It became a town by royal charter in 1761, when it had a 100 man garrison. Inhambane began as a settlement in 1727-1730. It obtained a royal charter in 1761, its Portuguese sovereignity was acknowledged in 1763, and it was elevated to town status in 1764. It should be noted that investment in these towns (apart from Inhanbane) is connected to the increasing interest in the areas of agrarian exploration, known as the “Zambezi Prazos”, which were spread across a vast area of that hydrographic basin, created and developed from the 16th-17th centuries.

Ibo, a small town on a coastal island off the north of Mozambique, was elevated to town status in 1763. It included some important public buildings: the Fortress Saint John the Baptist, the customs house, the Church of Saint Anthony, schools, and the town hall.

This tendency towards the use of regular layouts, typical of this period, takes on a still restricted spatial scope, being generally limited to two or three parallel and cross streets, connected to a central square. Nonetheless, the embryonic character of those proto-urban layouts would assume a wider and more adopted (and even structuring) plan for towns during the 19th and 20th centuries. This would be the case of Praia de Santa Maria, Bissau, Quelimane, and Inhambane. In other places, which never underwent significant later development, these layouts remained, marks of an era and of its urban ideology. This would be the case for Santo António do Príncipe, Novo Redondo, Sena and Ibo.

Other islands in the Gulf of Guinea and islands in the South Atlantic area

To conclude the analysis of Portuguese-African urbanization in the Modern Age, it is also worth mentioning some small insular areas where the Portuguese presence was short-lived, or did not result in any built-up areas. Although discovered by the Portuguese, these areas did not lead to an effective occupation. They are merely traces of what one might call “unsuccessful colonisation”, as in the case of two of the islands in the Gulf of Guinea and the remote islands of the south Atlantic.

The Annobon Island (present day Pagalu) is located to the southwest of São Tomé. This island was discovered either on the first day of 1471 or on a homeward voyage in 1484. Fernando Pó Island (then Macias Nguema/Bioko, with the city of Malabo), is located just 12 miles off the African coast, in the Gulf of Guinea and to the northeast of Príncipe Island. It was discovered in 1471-1472 and originally named Formosa Island. Inhabited by indigenous people (Bantu tribes, Guineans), it remained inhabited for centuries. Annobon Island was granted in 1503 as a donataria (provincial jurisdiction) to Jorge de Melo, whose descendants kept it until the 18th century. There are accounts of a fort of Portuguese origin in Ayene. In 1744 the crown regained possession of those lands bequeathed by donatarios due to the absence of a lawful title of succession. Both islands served for centuries as fleet supply bases, without a permanent human settlement, although clearing of vegetation and burnings (fires used to control pests and weeds) were made in order to enable its exploration and use. In 1778, those islands were granted to Spain as part of the agreements on Sacramento in South America. Following Spanish colonization in the 19th and 20th centuries, these two islands, along with a small continental area (former Spanish Guinea), became an independent country, Equatorial Guinea.

There are three remote islands of the south Atlantic connected to Portuguese expansion: Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena and Ascension are located further southwest of Annobon; they were discovered by João da Nova in 1502, following the discovery of the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, and depended on them for several years. Saint Helena was used as a stopover for ships that came from India, “on account of the refreshment which they find there”, according to the clarifying sentence by João de Barros. It is a mountainous island, with Atlantic and rainy weather patterns. In 1513 the first Portuguese settlers arrived there. From the 18th century onwards the Dutch and the English fought for control of the island. Saint Helena passed definitively into the hands of the English in 1673. Its capital is Jamestown, built along the coast, into a valley nestling between the mountains – evoking the settlement of Ribeira Grande de Santiago or of Machico in Madeira – and it possibly started as an early Portuguese settlement.

Ascension Island, although it had been granted a charter by King João III in 1539, remained unpopulated into the late 16th century. Its settlement was advised in 1591 by Domingos Abreu de Brito, in order to serve as a port of call during navigation between Angola and Brazil. As for Tristan da Cunha Island, it was discovered by Tristão da Cunha in 1506. It has an area of 40 square miles, a mountain which is 2,060 metres height, whose highest point is an active volcano. Both islands passed into British hands in 1815, dependent on Saint Helena.

Military architecture from the 15th to the 18th centuries: coastal fortifications and incursions into the interior

Military architecture was practised from the start of Portuguese expansion, especially on the African coasts. According to Rafael Moreira, it was, particularly from the 16-17th centuries, the real “first international and intercontinental architecture”.

The castle of late medieval model

Continuing the tradition implemented in the Maghreb/Moroccan coast following the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta in 1415, coastal Sub-Saharan occupation, developed around 1450-1460 stretching from Mauritania southwards, along the Gulf of Guinea, followed the initial model of the “late medieval castle”, which continued into the early decades of the 16th century, then reaching the East African coast. It was a concept preceding the emergence of the pyroballistic model. The fortification was endowed with vertical walls, which, in their most common and simplest version were set in a roughly square design and with modest dimensions. It was protected by four turrets of circular design that provided a cylindrical internal space. Sometimes there was an inner, isolated tower, at a higher level.

Hence the construction of the Fort of Arguin, near the Mauritanian coast (1455-1461), another in the Gorée Island, in present day Senegal, and the Fortress of Elmina (of 1482, in present day Ghana). This fortress was built in a more complex context, in conjunction with other fortifications on the Gulf of Guinea (Aceh, or Achin, fort of 1503; Xamã and Accra, in present day Ghana; Ugató, in present day Benin) (Moreira, 1989). The quadrangular Old Fortress in the Island of Mozambique (since 1509), on the East African coast – then inserted and with its construction fully integrated into the historical buildings that have come down to us as the Palace Saint Paul –, must have also been designed along these lines. The same applies to the original fortress of Sofala (1505), located further south though now little remains. On the north side of the Island of Mozambique, Kilwa is worth mentioning (1505- -1512) because it also has a walled quadrangular layout, later altered and fortified. The monument known as the Portuguese Fort of Tranovato, near the east coast of Madagascar might, given its date (1504-1535), correspond to the remains of a fortification of the same type (if still existing). Finally, we can also mention the characteristics of this model pertaining to the Portuguese presence in Ethiopia with the construction of strongholds such as the castle of the palatial complex of Gondar (the so-called “Gondarian style”). In the broader context of Portuguese expansion, this military typology of the late medieval castle was naturally not exclusive to the African (and Maghrebian) area because it was also used in Arabia and India. This was the case of the military structures that correspond to the first settlement in Vasai after 1536, with the so-called citadel, afterwards incorporated into the vast 17th century wall, forming a small enclosure with an irregular quadrangular shape, or that of Chaul which, from 1516, had a castle with a construction similar to that of Vasai, but was incorporated into the surrounding wall built later.

The bastioned and pyroballistic model

The following phase, of fortifications of the pyroballistic period, corresponded to a model with a very different formal, technical and spatial system basically opposed to the previous model: low walls in an oblique plane, angled bastions, fitted with orillons to protect those returning fire on the attacker. Throughout the second half of the 16th century and until the 18th, this model, which became gradually more complex, was used in all fortifications in Africa, requiring the reconstruction and/or adaptation of the oldest ones (like in Arguim, bastioned in 1607 by engineer Leonardo Turriano (15..-1629), in Elmina, or in Kilwa) and inspiring many others, which followed the new defensive rules from the ground up. Besides those of isolated trading centres, the fortifications that protected established towns and cities, or those being consolidated, were particularly important. They represented, in spite of the constant attacks from competing European powers, the consolidation of Portuguese colonial urbanization schemes.

Near the centres of insular, coastal and riverside cities of west Africa the following are worth mentioning: the Fortress Saint Philip (in Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Cape Verde, whose plan was attributed to Filipe Terzi (1520-1597), and carried out between 1587-1593); that of Saint Sebastian, in São Tomé, dating from 1566, as well as that of Saint Hyeronimus, of 1613-1614, which is more basic; and that of Saint Michael, in Luanda – the most complex of all, rebuilt in 1638, remade in masonry in 1669-1670, enlarged in 1768, and in conjunction with the forts of Saint Peter of Barra, of 1630 and 1780, and of Saint Francis of Penedo, of 1639, 1766 and 1795 (the latter being the date on the entrance gate).

On the east coast the mighty Saint Sebastian Fortress on the Island of Mozambique is worthy of note. It was a work which may have been carried out by Miguel de Arruda (1...-1563) and dates from about 1546, following the rules of pyroballistic military architecture by Benedetto de Ravenna (c. 1485-1556), with later works from 1558 to 1583. This fortress was connected to two small forts, that of Saint Anthony (coastal, set in the middle of the island), and that of Saint Lawrence, a simple polygonal work, set on an islet in the southwest edge of the island (built in 1695-1714). Further north, in Mombasa, on the coast of present day Kenya, the eponymous coastal island has the Portuguese Fort Jesus, built in 1593, to protect the local port, with a design executed by Giovanni Battista Cairati (15..-1596). The model used in these compounds – which, being technically more sophisticated and complex, was often designed and executed by military engineers born or trained in Italy (from which the perfection of the new fort style came) – was usually a simpler version. This is the reason why a plan resembling that of the late medieval model was generally used (apart from the complex fort Saint Michael, in Luanda), that is, a virtually quadrangular shape with four bastions at the corners.

From the late 17th century to the Napoleonic era, there was the development of a late stage of fortification, but the above-mentioned quadrangular model was preserved. It is worth mentioning the Fort Saint Philip, in Benguela, of 1661, which defended the city near its beach. Other examples are the Fortress Saint Joseph of Amura, a work that defined the urban form of Bissau (built in 1696, altered in 1766, rebuilt in 1858), and the lesser known but interesting Fort of Ponta da Mina, which protected Santo António, on Príncipe Island.

Last, some small fortified complexes should also be mentioned, of modest dimensions, but with a certain strategic importance, and usually built at later periods: in the Gulf of Guinea, in Saint John the Baptist of Ouidah (a small fort with a round tower and quadrangular curtain wall dating from 1720; it was later rebuilt several times, and is still standing, in a near “return to the past”, fitted with circular turret bases at the four corners); the Fort of Cacheu (built in 1588, rebuilt in 1650, and later remodelled; its original precise shape is unknown); and the Saint Spirit Fort, in the settlement of Lourenço Marques, built in the 18th century, but later rebuilt with significant changes. These three complexes correspond, however, more to walled enclosures than to solid and well-garrisoned fortifications.

We do not mention here all of the fortifications built, but it must be understood that they generally formed a nearly mandatory defensive scheme in all of the settlements created, even the smallest ones such as Ibo, in the northern extremity of Mozambique, and even in the occupation of inland territories. This is the case of the fortifications that followed penetration along the wide fluvial basins: that of kwanza, in Angola, and that of Zambezi, in Mozambique. Sofala, Sena and Tete have already been referred to but a series of fortifications can be identified that form a true territorial group of buildings along the Quanza River. The forts worthy of mention are: Muxima, “the towering guardian of the Cuanza River”, according to Fernando Batalha, originated in a fortress in 1577, then rebuilt in 1655, forming a pair with the small town in its foothills; Cambambe, which was a military stronghold in 1602, with settlement in 1604, had its fortress rebuilt in 1691, later becoming the municipality seat, until 1857, when it decayed; Massangano, which was a settlement established in 1582-1583.

In Portuguese Sub-Saharan Africa the fortification with continuous, bastioned walls surrounding the whole urban centre was never used – contrary to what was commonly seen in India (Vasai, Chaul, Cochin) and constantly seen in Morocco (from Ceuta to El Jadida). As in Brazil, the scheme of small fortifications on the flank of the urban centre – not surrounded by walls – was predominant. This is due to the context of constant war and hostile territories seen in India and in Morocco in contrast to a somewhat more “open relationship” with the interior in Brazil and even in Africa.

Therefore, in general terms, it can be seen that military architecture is one of the main characteristics of the architectural heritage of Portuguese origin in Sub-Saharan Africa throughout the Modern Era, even in comparison with important religious and civil architecture. Such a fact can be partly attributed to the resistance of this kind of works to the effects of time, enabling the survival up to our days of many of the built exemples, but it is mainly explained by the very strategic and organizational system of the Portuguese colonial empire. In effect, the issue of the defense of occupied towns and regions was essential and constant, explaining the successive construction and reconstruction of fortresses.

Religious architecture

In addition to the process of defence and military occupation, the religious aspect was a crucial means of expansion and consolidation in the Sub-Saharan region. It was a guiding thread, being initially a mobile, later the foundation of a structured action, and finally a process of legitimation of occupation and colonization. To a certain extent, it mirrors a collective attitude, a late inheritance of the so-called “Spirit of the Crusades”, which was deeply developed in the Portugal of the Late Middle Ages, alongside the formation of national identity. One can point out, just as a reference, since this theme falls outside the scope of this analysis: the role of the Order of Christ, with the deeds of Prince Henry (with markers established from Guinea to Melinde); the Christianization of the Kingdom of Congo, with the settlement of Portuguese priests in São Salvador from the late 15th century onwards; and the quest for Prester John (a mythical and Christian symbol across Africa) which led to military intervention in Ethiopia, and the later regional establishment of churches and convents by the Jesuits.

Religious motivation was also common in other areas of the First Empire, but the fact that Africa was the first region of advance and experimentation of expansion in geographical and chronological terms gave this motivation a special importance.

The Manueline period

In architectural terms, and considering what has remained to the present day, religious constructions (similarly to the early military constructions) followed the constructive and stylistic practice of the Manueline period. Only two elegant buildings of this early period have withstood the passage of time: the chapel of Baluarte, which has a style similar to that of the small Manueline polygonal churches, placed near the Saint Sebastian Fortress, on the Island of Mozambique; and the small church of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Cape Verde, whose oldest elements possibly correspond to the original chapel of 1495. Regarding the relation with Manueline traces in other areas, these two precious testimonies are comparable to the two only Manueline remains of an architectural nature built in India and still standing: the Church of the Priory of the Rosary in Old Goa, and the Chapel of Saint Thomas of Meliapor near Madras, a small sanctuary with a monumental flight of stairs located on the east coast of Hindustan (both featuring some elements with classical lines). Also in Maghrebian Africa, the main chapel of the former Portuguese Cathedral of Safi, in Morocco, displays a formal, stylistic and constructive scheme similar to that of the Church of the Rosary. As for Brazil, if it ever had any Manueline remnants, they have disappeared.

Classicism, the Plain Style and the influence of Portuguese India

The classical period, influenced by the Italian Renaissance, which spread to all the Portuguese towns of the Sub-Saharan region from the 16th to the 18th century, was mixed early on due to the need to create a simple kind of sacred building, which could be built by amateur builders. In the mid-twentieth century, historiographers labelled it plain architecture (Plain Style, see Kubler, 1972). We can mention some of the most important examples of this “clear and simple” style, arranging them into three main groups: those of east Africa, where the influences of Indo-Portuguese architecture and of local Swahili tradition were decisive and resulted in a great formal, decorative and spatial originality; those of insular regions, from Cape Verde to São Tomé, with the construction of small-scale religious areas; and those of Angolan architecture, closer to contemporary Portuguese European counterparts.

Let us consider some of the most significant examples of these three categories, aiming at stressing the most evident cases of contamination of the classical canon by the Indo- Portuguese styles, and pointing out the periods of more intense construction.

Within the context of east Africa, the most obvious cases of the “stylistic contamination” from the India of Portuguese colonization can be found in the Island of Mozambique and its most direct sphere of influence. The examples derive from the religious architecture of the west coast of Hindustan, from the north to Malabar: in Goa, in the regions of Bombay/Mumbai and Vasai, or in Daman and Diu, and even, further south, in Cochin. These architectural connections, in terms of similarities and/or influences, show the historical link among territories (in Africa and in India) which, until the Pombaline reform, belonged to the Estado da India, with a common administration, an interdependent military, political and economic life, and permanently connected by the maritime and commercial routes. But in Angola, and particularly in Luanda, we also find some examples of religious architecture analogous with Portuguese churches in India – showing that, besides the mare nostrum of the Indian Ocean, the connections and inter-continental and transoceanic voyages of the Portuguese also resulted in cultural influences and transfers, particularly throughout the 16th and 17th century. Therefore on the Island of Mozambique the Church of Misercórdia is worth mentioning. This church was built in the 16th century, and then rebuilt in 1607 (with a portal in the renaissance style, and a façade topped by a curved pediment with an abundant decoration in relief, according to the Indo-Portuguese style of 1700). It is analogous to the churches of Saint Francis in Diu (the porch in front of the façade, the kind of voluted pediment with side wings, and the overall scale) and that of the quarter of Santa Cruz, in Bombay (in terms of decoration). On the coast in front of the island, in Cabaceira Grande, the Church of Or Lady of Remedy has features that are similar to that of Our Lady of Remedy in Dauli, Vasai which dates from 1583.

In Angola there are three areas where religious period architecture excels: the city of Luanda, the surrounding region (Congo and Cuanza basin), and Benguela. Most of the churches feature a classical-plain style, similar to that of Iberian Portugal; but there are some cases of greater originality in Luanda, which evoke influences of other regions, like the abovementioned of India. These churches can be found in the upper town of Luanda, where there is a concentration of emblematic examples of sacred African architecture: the original Diocesan Cathedral of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception (of 1590, ruined in 1818, and demolished after the late 19th century), with a two-tiered façade surmounted by a rounded pediment; the Church of Jesus and the former Jesuit School, of 1605-1607, concluded in 1636. Whereas the church was compared in the 17th century to the Jesuit work in Funchal with a nave that drew inspiration from the style of the nave of Évora, the magnificent façade (in spite of restoration) is very similar to that of the Church of Saint Paul, in Diu (1601), also belonging to the Society of Jesus; finally, the Church of the Hospital da Misericórdia, less interesting as an architectural work and dating from 1670, evokes the façade of the Jesuit church of Vasai, in India, for the rounded silhouette of the frontage. On the coast of Luanda, on the old beach, the beautiful Hermitage of Our Lady of Nazareth, of 1664, displays a façade united to the side galleries and arcades, on two floors (finishing and concealing them), which can also be found in the Church of Our Lady of Popolo, in Benguela, from 1748 (here only on one side of the building), and in the Church of Our Lady of Liberation, of 1776-1786, in Quelimane (Zambezia, Mozambique), only on the ground floor. These architectural layouts can be associated with the oriental styles within a tropical framework connected to the need for ventilation and airing: in effect, these side galleries can also be found in Indo-Portuguese religious architecture in south India, in the Cochin region, in the style that can be called “church-temple” (Fernandes, “Urbanismo...”, 1999, 291). These comparisons must include analogous cases to be seen in several contemporary churches in Sergipe and Bahia, in northeast Brazil, with side galleries – a theme worthy of a more thorough study in terms of eventual inter-connections or influences.

Another type of religious building, more directly linked with European models of the classical-plain style, and therefore without significant stylistic connections to the Orient, was dominant in Afro-Atlantic archipelagos. In this context, the diocesan cathedrals stand out, as they follow classical lines and adopt a somewhat excessive scale for local surroundings. This is the case for the magnificent construction at Ribeira Grande, in Santiago de Cabo Verde, begun around 1556 (chronologically included in the series of the new Joanine dinasty cathedrals of Leiria, Portalegre and Miranda do Douro (In Iberian Portugal), besides that of Goa, developed from 1552-1562 and under construction until 1700, and with that of São Tomé of Our Lady of Grace, rebuilt in 1576-1578 and significantly altered in recent centuries.

In a perspective that complements the examples above we must highlight the small scale religious enclosures (small churches and chapels) in most built nuclei in the two mentioned Atlantic archipelagos, which have modest dimensions and shapes and simple spatial arrangements. It is worth mentioning, as examples, some cases that have survived to our days: on Santiago Island (Cape Verde), at Ribeira Grande, the Chapel of Saint Roch and the church of the former Franciscan convent, with simple and unique naves; in the surroundings of Ribeira Grande and Praia, the Chapel of Our Lady of Light, executed in the 15th century (with ogival arches), that of the Holy Trinity, with an original octagonal and centred plan, and that of Saint John the Baptist, with two towers of classical lines. On the north side of the island, the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace, in Chão de Tanque, is also worth mentioning, for its quadrangular loggia-porch, unique nave and vaulted, semi-spherical ceiling over the altar.

In São Tomé, besides the urban churches of the Immaculate Conception (of Manueline derivation, rebuilt in 1719), of Saint John (1562), of Good Jesus (with a façade with classical lines and a peculiar octagonal interior space and tower) and of the Chapel of Bom Despacho (of 1617, in vernacular style) the rare Church of the Mother of God, in the outskirts of the city is worthy of note. It is a work built in the 16th century, simple but with a fine portal of whitestone, with a flat pediment upon an architrave and two Corinthian columns, which features two figurative medallions (and a nave with tiled surfaces). The former church of Saint Anthony, in the city, still had, in the late 19th century, a façade with three semi-circular arches, of a classical design, typical of Franciscan works, and an adjoining quadrangular tower with rope-like decorations in the Manueline style. In Príncipe, the little city of Santo António also includes the simple Main Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, always along the same simple lines and based on a classical model.

To conclude these sectorial and inter-regional observations, it is also important to mention other styles, in Luanda and in the Cuanza region, for their noteworthy architectural style and for the stylistic or formal connections that it is possible to establish with works of other distant colonial territories. In Luanda downtown it is important to mention: in the Carmo quarter, near Mutamba, the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a work from 1660-1689, with a sober façade but with an elaborate design, ending in a well-distributed triangular pediment (along the lines of the Jesuit works in Olinda, Brazil, or in Saint Roch, Lisbon), with a stone portal topped by a niche, and interiors with wide tiled and painted areas (which was connected to the Convent of Saint Therese of the Barefoot Sisters, with a remarkable plain style with a round-arched arcade on both floors); the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, of 1651-1670, representative of the Portuguese traditional model for a sacred façade (two towers connected by a central “H”-shaped body, rebuilt and significantly altered in 1897 (the two original finials above the towers were replaced by peculiar iron turrets, it later became a cathedral); and also the small Church of Our Lady of the Cape, in Luanda Island, built near the fort of 1726, with a triangular pediment embellished with curved elements, such as those that we find in various small churches in the former Portuguese region of Mumbai, India. On the out skirts of Luanda, towards which the whole system of formal and stylistic influences spread from the capital throughout the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries, it is worth mentioning, besides the Cathedral of São Salvador/Mbanza Congo (1549), the two small but magnificent 17th century churches built along the Cuanza River: the church of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception of Muxima and that of Our Lady of Victory of Massangano, both with a side tower, topped by a finial, and three bays in the façade, surmounted by a triangular pediment – within the kind of small temple characteristic of non-urban areas; it also features thick and expressive buttresses, oblique and lateral, are similar to those that several churches in Goa, built in rural areas and playing a secondary role.

Using the constant chronological references mentioned above, we can attest that the main or most intense construction periods – often in a real succession of projects or “works campaigns” – took place throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, in three main phases: in the second half of the 16th century, corresponding to the period of investments so as to consolidate and institutionalize urban areas of the empire, with structuring actions (reconstruction of churches with bigger dimensions, creation of new churches and convents), often connected to the creation of new dioceses (Cape Verde, 1533; São Tomé, 1534); throughout the 17th century, first in the period of Philippine dynastic domination, within the framework of the extension of the processes of the previous phase (diocese of São Salvador do Congo, 1596) and without significant discontinuity regarding the second half of that century, in reconstructions and reinvestments, namely in the reconstruction of several buildings damaged by the Dutch occupation in Angola; in the 18th century, encompassing the Joanine and Pombaline dynastic periods, in processes of modernization of structures and spaces, affecting nearly all African colonial areas, reequipping and creating infrastructures in Luanda and its surroundings, granting autonomy to Mozambique, creating new religious buildings in Santiago de Cabo Verde and in Príncipe.

In summary, we can say that the varied examples found in Mozambique and Angola enable the association of some aspects of religious architecture in these regions, from the 16th to the 18th century with that of other overseas territories, namely Portuguese India, an aspect that can in turn be linked to maritime circulation and transportation of that era and its cultural effects. Notwithstanding, the works in the Afro-Atlantic archipelagos kept them somewhat more distant from this context of Oriental influence, preserving a more direct connection with the Portugal and European points of reference in cultural and artistic terms.

Civil architecture

Mainly shown in works such as the governors’ palaces, or municipal buildings (the socalled “casas de câmara e cadeia”/“town hall buildings and jail”), civil architecture also has interesting examples in terms of social care (Misericórdias), and, exceptionally, in storage infrastructure and factories.

The government palaces in Praia de Cabo Verde and in São Tomé, significantly altered in successive epochs, have a relative interest regarding their current situation. They stand out more for their symbolic value, for their large size and their location (the first, in the so-called plateau of the city, the second, in a central area, near the cathedral) than for other reasons.

A more interesting case, for its historical-architectonic quality, was the palace of the governor-general, or of the governors, in Luanda (built in 1607, it was reformed and enlarged in the Pombaline period in 1761, and in the mid-twentieth century it was renovated in the neoclassical revival style by architect Fernando Batalha, b. 1908). The 18th century building, like most of the great manors of the Pombaline epoch, embodied both the residential and civic version of the neoclassicist model filtered by Portuguese architectural culture – insofar as Pombal’s period saw an erudite and updated reinterpretation of what used to be the plain style of the 16th-17th centuries.

The large structure of the Palace of Saint Paul, the government seat on the Island of Mozambique was along those lines, making use of the previous Jesuit work (of 1619-35), in conjunction with the chapel.

Little is known of the town halls regarding the former characteristics of buildings. In any event, the example on the Island of Mozambique stands out, for its simple functional/ formal style (along the aforementioned civic lines, although more basic and with smaller dimensions than those of the palaces), built in 1781.

Within the context of civic-residential typology, we can also mention the residences of governors and bishops (where the domestic function was often inseparable from the representative and official function). For example, again on the beautiful Island of Mozambique, the socalled Casa Nova do Governador, or Casa dos Arcos (with a wide masonry arcade that covers the whole main floor), and the former Bishop’s Palace, with elegant bays arranged in series.

Fiscal control over commerce in conjunction with port facilities must have played an important role in these maritime and thalassocratic cities. The most evident and emblematic building that held these functions was the customs house, which marked cities such as São Tomé, Santo António, Island of Mozambique, Luanda, and Benguela. In the last three cities the customs house building can still be seen, close to the sea. It usually assumes a strictly functional architectural dimension. In Luanda, in the coastal lower area, there emerged a series of public buildings with similar functions of fiscal control and depository for goods. On the western extremity of Praia Street, by the sea’s edge, stood the Public Courtyard, with a wide cistern and pier (of 1764-1772). Still in existence, although modified, the large structure of the customs house (of Pombaline derivation) attests to this construction stage as an imposing work in terms of civil architecture. Fernando Batalha mentions and documents many of these areas in Luanda: the Finances Office, with a façade marked by a prominent central portico, with an imposing beamed ceiling (building now demolished), or the former façade of the Pombaline customs house, with an imposing curved pediment (before alteration), with its main room displaying the wide, exposed interior structure of the roof (Batalha, “Em defesa...”, 1963).

These utilitarian buildings are sober constructions which generally obey the rules of classical lines in their composition, with the bays arranged in series defining the design of the façades. In this aspect, this era lacked the typological and spatial distinction and special ization that would be seen in the 19th century, and more particularly in the 20th: therefore, the buildings generally resemble the major palatial and residential buildings of that period, although poorer from a stylistic point of view.

The Misericórdias, aimed at providing assistance, and combining civic-buildings (hospital) and religious functions (church or chapel), are some of the most interesting and original works in the urban contexts of Portuguese expansion. Nonetheless, they have generally been subject to profound changes which makes it difficult to have a grasp of their typologies.

From the Misericórdia of Ribeira Grande, in Santiago de Cabo Verde, there only remains a section of the tower and the mapping of its ruins in the 1960s; that of the Island of Mozambique, on the other hand, is in a good state of preservation, along with the church, and the small scale of these assistance and religious buildings and spaces gives us an idea up to the present of the stylistic characteristics that these institutions must have had in most of the oceanic towns in the early 16th century: one or two quadrangular bodies for the area of the hospital, another for the residence of the brethren, a tower (with the house of the physician) and the church – with a courtyard that served as a connection to the several functional areas.

This theme, almost unknown as an architectonic typology, must be thoroughly studied, including the analysis of other areas, in other places, namely in European Portugal, where there were many of these institutions. For instance, the buildings of the Misericórdia of Saint Sebastian (Terceira Island, Azores), where the preservation of the oldest model must also have taken place (it is part of a group of buildings, formed by the chapel, what remains of the supposed single-storey hospital facilities, and a kind of “house-tower” with two storeys – evoking the arrangement of the above-mentioned example in the Island of Mozambique). The typological analysis of the former Misericórdia of São Tomé (present day courthouse of the city) is particularly interesting: behind an apparently more recent building must still stand the structure and arrangement of the original assistance areas, with a more regular nature than those in Mozambique (possibly from the 16th-17th century), shown by the ceiling, with its four “multiple roofs”, each with four slopes, parallel to one another, and forming an inner courtyard: the chapel could have corresponded to one of them. The theme of multiple and/or “scissor-like” roofs (usually each one with four pitched sides over the same building, aligned among them, each corresponding to a structural partition of the house, built over all four walls, in the shape of a quadrilateral), is indeed one of the most interesting in civic and residential buildings of this era, in the varied urban areas of Portuguese expansion. The case of Luanda’s Misericórdia is one of the most remarkable. Orlando Ribeiro had already indicated it, when he presented in his work Geografia e Civilização (Geography and Civilization [1961]) an image of buildings in Luanda with those traditional roofs. He attributed the spread of this model to the promotion of the eastern shingled roof via the Portuguese expansion (from Goa, for example), observing that it can still be found nowadays in several residential buildings in Portuguese cities from the modern era, from manor houses to vernacular houses (in the cities of Tavira, Lagos, Faro, Lisbon). The design and the building in Angola evoke, once again, Indian cultural influences by means of the transatlan tic commercial routes, at least in the case of Luanda and Benguela (Fernandes and Janeiro, 2005, 73; Fernandes, “Encyclopedia...”, 1997, vol. III, 2010).

The former Hospital of the Misericórdia of Luanda, of 1612-1616 (later significantly altered), rebuilt in 1771 as a hospital, and then as a seat of the Military Courthouse, still featured in the mid-twentieth century its large medical care unit, two storeys high, adjoining the church, and covered by four large roofs parallel to each other – looking remarkably similar to other buildings of that period, such as the former Bishop’s Palace in Faro (Algarve, Portugal). The picture of the two, analogous in terms of scale and style, featuring long wrap-around cornices, is only different in the design of the lintels of the bays of the upper floor (flat in the example found in the Algarve and curved in the Angolan case).

In terms of infrastructure, an isolated but relevant mention must be made of the socalled Real Fábrica do Ferro (Royal Iron Factory), built in 1768-1772 in the Luanda hinterland by the Pombaline consulate. It had a dyke, an aqueduct to make the engines operate, a compartment for hydraulic wheels, a kiln (a masterpiece of proto-industrial architecture with a double stairway), a forge with three warehouses, and an outflow duct. The village of Nova Oeiras was established alongside it with a church, trading post, intendancy, treasury, and houses for technicians and workmen. From most of these works only the ruins have survived to our day. Although the initiative failed soon after it was begun (due to the relocation of the governor, although it may have been due to the weather and perhaps the premature nature of the initiative in technological and economical sustainable terms), it remained as an historical ruin which was unusual but attested to the interest in modernization in that epoch.

In fact some authors such as Catarina Madeira Santos have recently analysed the effectiveness of the intention in Pombaline and Marian (from Queen Mary I) Angola of a renewed colonial project marked by by structural reforms, new investments, the upsurge in new administration boards (engineering, military), for actions such as the creation of the Aula de Geometria e Fortificação (Geometry and Fortification Class) in Luanda, in 1769 – that is, it must be considered that the territory could have been regarded as a “New Brazil”, a recurring theme, later reused in varied contexts, but always in an attempt at modernization and invigoration of its collective life.

Residential or domestic architecture

Residential areas and styles, shown in buildings of various sizes (large-sized manors and aristocratic houses, medium-sized houses, and houses in the popular or vernacular style), played an important role in this phase.

As a uniting factor, we can mention the fact that they were all built out of masonry or earthy materials (rammed-earth, adobes), had thick walls with small-sized bays, usually whitewashed, and with ceilings of a wooden structure, and the use of ceramic tiles – along the lines of the great houses typical of Mediterranean Europe, well established for centuries, and used in Iberian Portugal.

Little is known of the residences of the first phase, the Manueline period. Only a few traces remain, such as the Gothic (or Manueline) window on a street of Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Cape Verde). In the stage of the so-called plain architecture, in the 16th-17th centuries, and in the Pombaline period in the second half of the 18th century, more examples are obviously known, which extended into the 19th century (the determination of dates is extremely difficult in vernacular architecture). In this context, the analysis of residential architecture of Luanda and Island of Mozambique is of particular interest. Regarding houses in Luanda – a true cluster of traditional houses, especially downtown, with its multiple roofs the ground-breaking research by Ilídio do Amaral and Fernando Batalha is worthy of mention. Batalha made an inventory in the 1940s and 1950s of the houses that still existed in that period (unfortunately, most of those houses would be later destroyed due to the unstoppable urban expansion of Luanda in the 1960s). He created a typological classification with a description, showing its variety and aesthetic interest. It is regrettable that this precious architectural heritage is irreparably lost. Among the most notable residences are the two-storey house of the Dom Fernando Square, the Lencastres House, the Palace of Fantasmas, the present day Anthropology Museum (from the Joanine period, altered by the Diamang Company in the 1960s), and the Palace of Dona Ana Joaquina, dating from the late 18th century (rebuilt in pastiche).

In Benguela there are remains and characteristics from that period in the so-called Palácio Velho (Old Palace): built in the 18th century, made of adobe, sucessively altered, rebuilt and restored (in 1929), it is particularly interesting, besides the typical multiple roofs, for its back area, where, on the main floor, a wide sheltered gallery with round arcades stretches out; the gallery rests on thick pillars and opens onto a double staircase of a fine visual effect (Batalha, “Palácio Velho...”, 1964). It evokes the Indian verandas and galleries of which there are examples in houses of the same period, but more modest, on the Island of Mozambique and in Ibo.

Quirino da Fonseca mentioned this deeply original aspect of colonization in Mozambique, now basically extinct, and which must have encompassed the whole area of influence of the Island of Mozambique, as far as Cabo Delgado and Tete (possibly also by means of the lands of the Prazos) – which even inspired some examples of late 19th century architecture, already in metal or in wood, in Lourenço Marques (example: the sheltered verandas and curved steps of the former Hotel Club, of 1898; the Hindu House with a veranda between two turrets at the former Manuel de Arriaga Avenue): “Usually a colonnaded porch was attached to the main façade. It looked heavy and had masonry columns, whose corners were faceted, creating large Indian-style verandas. (...) This style of house with roof terraces was promoted in India by the Moors, reaching Mozambique through the numerous Indian stonemasons and construction supervisors that came from there” (Fonseca, 1968, 47, 48-a and 48-b).

There are also several examples on the Island of Mozambique urban houses with an identical construction with thick walls with small, narrow bays forming groups, but with two floors and the back area fronting the north coast. This is the case of the 17th century terraced houses along the street that connects the Palácio Square to the Field of São Gabriel. These are buildings of great beauty, with a terraced roof for rainwater collection. Some have been restored, whereas others are in ruins.

The urban houses, with rectangular plans and simple shapes, covered with terraces of cubic volumes, from the 18th century, common in the “Island” (Loureiro, “Postais Antigos da Ilha…”, 2001, 39a), must have been a late and remote influence on the modest structures, far to the south, of the early houses in Maputo such as the unique so-called Casa Amarela (Yellow House) in Maputo.

In summary, while the cultural exchanges and influences within the Indian world are known (from the Indo-Portuguese perspective in this case, uniting and combining in architecture and art the works of Goa or Diu with those of the Island of Mozambique and Ibo), the interactions of the Indian settlements of north Mozambique with the remaining territory are less studied (Zambezia, Tete, Quelimane, and the south). In a broader context the inter-oceanic cultural transfer from the Indo-Portuguese cultural nucleus in its connection with west Africa, particularly Luanda and Benguela, throughout the 16th to the 18th centuries remains to be acknowledged with greater certainty. Analysis of civil and domestic architecture from this point of view can no doubt throw light on these interactions.

 

1820-1930. Over one century of colonization and “effective occupation”

The early years of the 19th century, still with Brazil

The transition from the 18th to the 19th century corresponded, both in Iberian Portugal and its insular and colonial territories, to a serious series of political-military crises that culminated in the civil war of the second quarter of the 19th century. This had been preceded by Napoleonic invasions, the move of the court to Brazil, the independence of this country and the constitutional implementation in Lisbon. These events would form a dramatic and disturbing sequence, resulting in a complete change of the systems of collective life and territorial arrangement that had been in force until then. The 19th century was, therefore, a period of profound geopolitical, territorial and administrative transformation, which would necessarily have an impact in Portuguese overseas territories. Hence its effects in urbanistic, architectonic and artistic terms are necessarily complex and multifaceted.

The transfer of the colonial “centre of gravity” from Brazil to Africa

The liberal winners of the civil war that ravaged Portugal in the 1820s-1830s, later responsible for the overseas policy and colonization, had a very clear idea of what they intended to do regarding the colonial territory. Following the loss of Brazil, this territory centred on Africa. Nonetheless, the unsettled period, due to the confusing and longlasting conflict that stretched through crises and confrontations to the Regeneration of 1850-1851, delayed and made it difficult for the innovative and modernizing policies of liberalism to advance and be put into practice. In fact the liberals were soon interested in the overseas political sphere. For example, the words of Sá da Bandeira (1795-1876) – who would later become one of the main agents of the new policy – bear witness to this fact. He said in 1829, during an adventurous ship voyage to the Azores, when reflecting on what had to be done in the new Portuguese colonial context: “Portuguese government should, in the same decree that would abolish slave trade, declare free trade for the ports it possesses in Africa and Asia with all nations, forcing Portuguese ships to comply. Luanda, Mozambique, Diu, Daman, Goa, Macao and Dili (in Timor) should be declared free-zones, as well as one of the ports of the Cape Verde islands. A solid colony should be established in Zaire, and in order to ensure navigation in Zaire another colony should be created in [...] and in the south, in the port of Moçâmedes; in East Africa a lot of things had to be done. There should be an effort so as to unite the western possessions to those of the east coast through the interior. Good missionaries should be sent in large numbers to the interior”. (Bandeira, 1976, vol. II, pp. 36-37). From this simple but intense speech we can conclude that the future politician and ruler, with an enlightened understanding of the situation of the period, thought in 1829 about the creation of Mindelo, the colonization of the northern and southern extremities of Angola, and even in the extension of Mozambique beyond the Zambezi and the north coast, with the corresponding supply of qualified missionaries and people – that is a territorial perspective of the Portuguese-African territories.

In effect, following the inevitable stagnation or indecision in the second quarter of the 19th century, due to civil wars and political instability in Portugal, there began a colonial movement to Africa in the third quarter of the 19th century, which increased at the end of that century: the geoscientific expeditions within southern Africa in an attempt to connect both coasts then combined with a new effective urban settlement along the Angolan and Mozambican coasts and the initial attempts at penetration into the interior using Portuguese-Brazilian people with different origin: from Pernambuco, Madeira, Algarve, and Boers, whether for proto-urban or rural settlements. From the 1860s-1870s to around 1925 (that is, during Regeneration and the final stage of the monarchy, the advent of the Republic, the First World War and its post-war era) there was an intense colonial expansion. Therefore the perspective of a maritime territory of thalassocratic nature, with a presence limited to the coast, which had prevailed in the colonial system of occupation and urbanization in the Indies and Brazil in the 16th-17th centuries, and continued in Portuguese Africa until the 19th century, was abandoned and it was now being considered from the point of view of the construction of a terrestrial territory. This perspective deepened after the Berlin Conference of 1885 when the concept of effective possession of the African territories prevailed over that of its occupation for historical reasons. The failure of the political project of a vast unified territory, uniting Angola and Mozambique (in the revival of the dream of a “New Brazil” in Africa), through the Pink map crisis of 1890, although it prevented the transcontinental nature of this new African empire nonetheless enabled the creation of vast areas of internal territorial occupation through two broad regions of southern Africa.

The distinct stages of colonization and urbanization

In terms of urbanism and architecture the 19th century in Portuguese Africa can be divided into two periods: in the first, traditional coastal occupation persists (focusing on Luanda and Benguela, in Angola, and between the Island of Mozambique and Sofala in the eastern colony), alongside the older presence along the length of the basins of the Quanza and Zambezi rivers and a slow and scattered penetration into the interior, the result of occasional initiatives; in the second, there is a clear urbanistic investment (with new cities and towns) and the creation of infrastructure (railways, ports) promoted by the state, which increased after 1850 and in the last quarter of the 19th century (and also as a result of the political need of an effective occupation); its crucial periods centre on the establishment and development of Lourenço Marques and Beira, in Mozambique, and of Lobito, Nova Lisboa/ Huambo and Sá da Bandeira/Lubango, in addition to the growth of Moçâmedes/ Namibe, in Angola.

The first quarter of the 20th century saw an administrative, social and political modernization (begun in the final stage of monarchy and at the turn of the century). The First Republic (from 1910) accentuated this interest, embodied by Norton de Matos and the role he played in Angola.

It is pertinent to raise here the question of continuities and ruptures regarding the overseas urban models in the 19th century. On the one hand, the traditional models persisted (for example, in the conception of Mindelo, in 1850-1870, or the first phase of Lourenço Marques, in 1876, or in the primal street networks in Lobito, in 1902-1912, or in Beira, in 1907); on the other geometric, modernizing models, using grid patterns, were tested, both in the initial plan of Mindelo (1838) and in the launch of Moçâmedes and Lubango/Sá da Bandeira (the later for the settlers of 1885), and even in the remarkable project for the expansion of Lourenço Marques in 1887. Radiating poligonal layouts in projects from the early 1900s are other examples of the knowledge and interest in keeping abreast of international urbanistic fashions (the case of the plan for Huambo/Nova Lisboa, dating from 1912-1913, or later on, in Lichinga/Vila Cabral of 1931).

Urbanization stages between 1820 and 1930

The early periods of colonization took place, as we have seen, in Sub-Saharan Africa, between the 15th and 18th centuries, with scattered urban occupations or in small continental regions. During a second stage, still somewhat marked by indecision, chronologically set between 1820 or 1822 and the 1860s-1870s, new cities or towns were created, either of a more modern or still traditional size: this is the case of Mindelo in São Vicente de Cabo Verde, besides other small towns in the archipelago, such as Vila Maria Pia in Santo Antão; in Guinea-Bissau, the village of Bolama (1830) and the first expansion of Bissau (1858-1860) are worthy of mention.

In Angola the great penetrations into the interior started in this period, marked by the modern establishment of a series of strongholds, then developed as settlements, towns or cities: N’dalatando (1835), Malange (1852), Porto de Ambriz (1856-1882), Catumbela (1836), Lobito Velho (1842, unsuccessful occupation), Moçâmedes/Namibe, in 1842-85, Huíla in 1839 and Porto Alexandre in 1864-1878. In Mozambique the new urbanizing centre of the south began at this stage in Lourenço Marques (in 1867-1876) and Inhambane (in 1862- -1878). A third stage, basically driven by the process of systematic penetration and expansion, marked the period between 1875-1885 and 1925-1930. In Angola, four great axis in the west-east direction created the modern territory: in the north, besides the regions of Cabinda and Congo of the south of Zaire River, the triangle Luanda/Quanza/Malanje and the axis Amboim/Gabela, until 1920; in the centre, the triangle Lobito/Benguela/Huambo; and also, further south, the axis Namibe/Lubango.

In Mozambique, three areas of urbanizing penetration were consolidated in this stage, with the expansion of various urban centres: to the south, Lourenço Marques (1887), Xai-Xai/João Belo (1910), Inhambane (1885), Ressano Garcia (1890); in the centre, Beira (1887), Tete (1912) and Quelimane; and to the north, Pemba/Porto Amélia (1921), Angoche/ António Enes (1910), Ibo (1885) and, later on, Nampula.

Additionally the facilities of coffee and cocoa plantations in São Tomé, with the systems of railway supply and support infrastructure, modernized that archipelago; whereas the expansion of Bissau in Guinea granted it a global urban plan in 1919.

The new plans for the cities and new urban equipment

The 19th century period under discussion was marked, in urbanistic terms, by the scope of Euro-American culture, by the promotion and intense enforcement of the layouts with a rigorous grid pattern – both in the expansion of existing cities and in the establishment of new cities. This corresponded to the so-called reformist stage of the Industrial Revolution, mainly in the second half of the 19th century, when the major and medium size Euro-American cities, such as Paris, London, Barcelona, Vienna or Chicago were subjected to various planned and guided actions of spatial, functional, and public urban design rearrangement – adapting them to the new status of industrial cities. These grids corresponded to the rationalistic implementation, in the new area of cities, of the new communication and transportation systems (railways, subway) and the creation of basic infrastructures (sewage, water, gas, then finally electricity). They showed through their rectilinear and grid lines (wide parallel and perpendicular avenues, creating systems of blocks with a rectangular layout), the primacy of the new techniques and systems of industrial production, the idea of the urban implementation of mechanicism as a preferred means of modernization – still prior to a road-building period, but that, with the transition of 1900, would soon include the urban adaptation to this new activity.

In Portugal, if there was any contemporary urban expansion of this kind in the modest scale of its cities (in Lisbon, with the Avenue of Liberdade, in 1879, and in Porto, with Avenue of Boavista), and even the creation of some new cities (the grid pattern of Espinho, in the late 19th century), the major or most significant implementation of this new urban style (in a relatively small format, due to poverty and the scarce financial resources of the country at the time) took place in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The early Afro-colonial geometric models emerged in the first half of the 19th century with the 1838 plan of Sá da Bandeira for Mindelo although it was not put into practice. There was a more pragmatic sprawl of this small city (of Marian late 18th century derivation to the early 19th century) in the 1850s-1870s, based on a more irregular and organic grid pattern, in a compromise with the Portuguese urban tradition from the previous period, attested to by its establishment in a sheltered bay. Development then became more intense with the establishment of English commercial companies and its elevation to city status took place in 1879.

The layout of the 1838 plan included a rigorous grid of streets and blocks in a rectangular area according to the pragmatic fashion of the 19th century. Within the urban fabric two perpendicular axis would meet in a roundabout. On the western extremity, a civic square would front the sea, including a church, the Bishop’s Palace, the palace of the government and town hall; and in the upper eastern section three wooded axis would expand into a park. On the coastal extremities the customs house and the market would complete the basic setting. Although it was not implemented, this plan clearly marked a paradigm shift in urbanism for African colonies, as in the following decades geometric layouts were used as a normative system for the establishment of new cities.

Two of the most impressive and effective grid patterns were proposed – and this time quickly implemented – for the new cities of Moçâmedes (present day Namibe) and Sá da Bandeira (present day Lubango), both in south Angola; the former was a seaport, whereas the later was located on a inner plateau. Both cities were later united through a railway system, and thus they became the two main signs of the major urban axis of occupation and penetration into the southeastern interior of the Angolan territory. Both cities were structured, along the lines of the 19th century urbanism of geometric-mechanicist nature, from their embryonic grids, modulated and seriated, with a central institutional nucleus – bringing together the main representative functions. The grid, besides being a support to the primal residential area, served to link the urban activity with the port area and/or the customs area, on the one hand, and the railway yards and station, on the other. Let us analyse in detail the characteristics of these two undertakings in southern Angola.

The region of Moçâmedes was initially acknowledged in 1839, which was followed, that same year, by the creation of a trading post and the establishment of a fishery by an Algarve born man in 1843. Having around 160 inhabitants in 1849, it then welcomed a wave of settlers from Pernambuco. The village of Moçâmedes was elevated to town status in 1851, and became a city in 1907 as it grew alongside the emerging railway. A city surrounded by sand fields, set amidst the desert, the sea and vegetable gardens, Moçâmedes had from the start a peculiar nature and an urban style that, apart from the initial establishment of institutions along the bay (fort, palace, church, hospital), was always based on the rigorous grid (pioneering in Portuguese Africa) that was oriented towards the southwest-northeast. The fabric of the initial grid layout, as far as we know, started in the Fort Saint Ferdinand, with a seven block stretch towards the northeast, and along three blocks towards the interior.

Sá da Bandeira, in the Huíla region, established in 1885 using settlers from Madeira (around 570 inhabitants), was then granted a founding plan: “divided into ten blocks, each with an area of one hectare, each including ten families. The centre is occupied by the state owned buildings, the market and the square. All blocks are supplied with water from the common levada [a word with a strong association with Madeira] that, when crossing the town in a conveniently chosen place defined areas for the hospital, jail, cemetery, military headquarters and powder magazine”. A town in 1889, it had 1,074 settlers as early as 1891. It was elevated to city in 1923, with the building of the railway connection to Moçâmedes. The initial stage of development of the town was eclipsed by the exploration of the fertile plateau of Chela, with the cultivation of wheat, barley, hemp, etc. Sá da Bandeira was one of the most curious and original cases of Portuguese-African settlement in the late 19th century, based on island settlers and whose development was promoted by the emergence of the railway.

Comparing the two cities, their common features stand out: the same grid shape and urban fabric, similar processes of establishment and development, within the same epoch and material culture. The aforementioned urban fabric of Sá da Bandeira resembles that of Moçâmedes in terms of scale, modulation and overall dimension, evoking the same kind of new city certainly designed by state organisms as part of the overseas ministerial framework of the Portuguese government – with designs probably executed by the teams of engineers that, working on public services, introduced new technical knowledge, through the influence of French (Paris) education, with their schools of “bridges and paving”. The plan of Lourenço Marques of 1887, which will be analysed now, sheds some light on this subject.

Before we do so, nonetheless, two other cities, established at the heart of Angola, have to be mentioned, as they represent the consolidation of the territorial control and penetration in this region – which, alongside the other two axis (Luanda/Malange to the north, and Moçâmedes-Sá da Bandeira to the south), represented the complete structuring of the process of urbanization of Angola on all of its three geographical fronts. In effect, the establishment of Lobito, on the coast, and of Nova Lisboa/Huambo in the interior, completed the picture of medium-sized, administrative and seaport cities, from where expansion and subsequent urban development of Angola would be “controlled”.

The city of Lobito had a definitive urban establishment in 1910-1913 based on the launch of the Benguela Railway (created in 1904-1929), for which the new city served as the expected terminal and headquarters. The potentialities as a seaport (the port built in 1907- 1922) led to its consolidation as a substitute for nearby Benguela. Although it had a streetplan adapted to the jagged coastline, the urban layout of Lobito followed the grid model characteristic of that period. The layout can be divided into two areas: that of the sand bar, with a linear structure, extending in a southwest-northeast direction; and that located further south, where the grid could be enlarged, and which assembled the railway terminus and the centre and main public buildings in the city.

The city of Nova Lisboa/Huambo is a special case of urban design, with a generous and expansive streetplan, unusual in the colonial setting as it represented an update of the urbanistic concepts of European influence (proposed by Ebenezer Howard for the “garden cities”, of 1898): the model of the polygonal and radiating layout, with a centered, hexagonal or octagonal basis, in place of the previous model, with a modulated and repetitive grid pattern, implemented throughout the 19th century. It was established in 1912 by Norton de Matos, being afterwards constantly developed, as the major city in the central area of Angola.

Making a brief and essential comparison between Lobito and Nova Lisboa, it is important to point out that, although they were completely contemporary and interdependent (in functional and material terms through their railway connection), each one of them pursued quite different objectives, resulted in basically opposing urban styles: with a practical aim and seaport vocation, Lobito was conceived as a terminal area, a place for the exchange of goods – therefore, with a basic layout, in which the traditional grid from the 19th century still served as a standard; whereas in Nova Lisboa, with its symbolic and administrative function (it even sought, at some point, to become the new capital of Angola) a radiating layout, relatively innovative in that period, was chosen. It favoured the urban, monumentalizing character of the representative functions, located in the centre of the town.

Let us consider now, in the context of Mozambique, how the processes of urbanization developed alongside the Angolan example. Contrary to Angola, where the new cities turned out to be small-size metropolises, promoting and resulting from the gradual territorial expansion from main established urban centres, in Mozambique the two new cities, in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, would be from the start the main cities of the whole colony; that is, the new capital, Lourenço Marques (present day Maputo) and Beira, a second city intended to control the centre of the territory and connecting the new railway system for the Rhodesias and Nyasaland.

This was due to the fact that Mozambique was undergoing a period of transfer of its central administration, because of national and international political and economic strategies, from the northern area of oldest colonization (regions of the Island of Mozambique and of Zambezia), to the new south that had not been yet urbanized. In Angola the main urban areas continued to centre on ancient Luanda and Benguela, in spite of the functional micro-transfer of the Benguela-Lobito binomial and the unsuccessful attempt at establishing a new capital in Huambo.

In fact, Lourenço Marques can be considered as the main urban creation and one of the most perfect in aesthetic and functional terms executed in Portuguese colonial Africa since the establishment of Luanda in 1575. The bay of Maputo, explored by Lourenço Marques in 1544, had had a first thrust in 1782. In 1867-1868 a small settlement was built – the Presidio. It is worth noting the almost medieval meaning of this urban compound that, applied to the founding nucleus of Lourenço Marques, says a lot about the qualities of persistence and continuity of Portuguese urbanization – for a “long time” in history. Elevated to town status in 1876, the urban area of Lourenço Marques corresponded uniquely to the present day downtown. In 1887, the expedition of public work engineers resulted in the launch of a project for a modern city, executed with ambition and vision – the Plano de Ampliação da Cidade de Lourenço Marques (Extension Plan for the City of Lourenço Marques), signed by António José de Araújo – with a wide and rigorous grid of ten streets southwest/northeast bound and eight northwest/southeast bound. This was the starting point of the continuous expansion, noteworthy in urban-architectonic terms, of the Mozambican capital (since 1898) over the following decades.

Beira started as a simple military post, in 1887. The following phase saw the construction of a series of systematic embankments, with the construction of the port from 1892 to 1910. Urban progress was stimulated by the beginning of the construction of the railway that connected Beira to South Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe), in 1899. Elevated to a city in 1907, Beira had its first urbanization plan executed in 1930. The urban centre was at the time essentially linked to trade and port activities, locatedt on swampy river banks, which made its development and sanitation difficult. The initial street-plan of Beira adopted an essentially pragmatic nature, without a particular formal or aesthetic concern, in accordance with its main vocation as a seaport. Therefore, the small foundational nucleus in the 1900-1915 circumvented the swampy areas northwards-southwards; its following stage of development – between 1925 and 1930 – was made towards the southeast, in order to avoid the swamps, and looked like a linear city, with a more organized and rigorous layout.

In summary, it is important to stress the contrast between the features of the cities of Lourenço Marques and those of Beira, within a generic background that somehow recalls the differences between Nova Lisboa and Lobito, apart from the differences in scale, both administrative and functional, between the two groups. Therefore, although the new Mozambican capital also established itself as a modern port, useful and important on a global scale, it was Beira that started to play the main port function for the whole territory by virtue of its central location in the vicinity of the wide Zambezi basin, which enabled the outflow of all the agroindustrial goods produced in the English inland colonies (non-coastal regions, located to the west). Moreover, Beira also played administrative functions (although, for decades, in the specific context of seat of a monopolist company). Hence it is natural that its urban layout had mainly pragmatic and functional purposes (such as Lobito in Angola), without any particular aesthetic concern.

As for Lourenço Marques, although it also served as a significant seaport, it was essentially conceived as the new capital of a vast territory, as well as a sign of occupation and control of the southernmost section of Mozambique. It thus has an urban layout of high quality and with aesthetic concern, which emphasized the symbolic functions of colonial-national Portuguese power, simultaneously centralizing, representative and administrative.

Other new, smaller towns were established in this period, spread across the Portuguese influenced Sub-Saharan Africa: the dynamics of the urbanization process essentially based on settlements with a more or less standard grid pattern, more or less typical, reached Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and naturally the various regions of the vast territories of Angola and Mozambique. Vila Maria Pia, or port of Ponta do Sol, on the northernmost section of the Santo Antão Island in Cape Verde, is one of the insular towns that is especially worthy of mention, for its schematic nature, which is the exemplary result of a “minimal urban settlement” in that period. In effect, its area is basically limited to the founding square, which until recently included almost only the church, the town hall and hospital. A grid – somewhat crude – marks the town in almost engraving from 1900 (Silveira, s/d: vol. II). In Guinea-Bissau, the vila of São José de Bissau was already being highly developed in 1884, having houses with two storeys resting on arcades near the fort. The medium-sized fort features an internal proto-urbanization, in the plan “Bissau in 1893” (Martins, 1945, 404), in which the cemetery is located outside. The plan, with a markedly geometric grid, drawn up by engineer José Guedes Quinhones for the “New City of Bissau” dates from 1919, and must have served as a pre-existence for the plan of 1945 and the present day street-plan (Silveira, s/d: vol. II). As a result, the riverside area near the fort still appears in recent plans with narrow streets, and above it, the network of wide streets, parallel and perpendicular, with a wide central roundabout (from 1945 plan).

Other small nuclei in Angola (Cabinda, Porto de Ambriz, Malange, Dondo, Catumbela...) are also worthy of note because, although they are urban settlements from the 19th century, or fundamentally developed throughout the 19th century, they did not have at the time a significantly grid-like and rigorous layout. These cities attest, on the contrary, to the survival and continuity of Portuguese traditional “organic-adaptative” urbanism, a result of previous stages, and translated into modest and pragmatic administrative headquarters, “commercial towns”, or coastal nuclei of occupation.

In Mozambique, we can also mention this kind of small nucleus, with an almost gridlike pattern, although not rigorous: for example, António Enes (present day Angoche) and Porto Amélia (present day Pemba), on the north coast of the territory. João Belo (present day Xai-Xai), in the south, bordered by the Limpopo River, on the contrary, has a plan with a rigorous grid pattern (of 1910), creating a beautiful effect on the local flat landscape – as well as Ressano Garcia, on the railway border with South Africa to the west of the capital.

It is also important to mention the 19th century development of some existing (and capital) cities, started in the previous historical stage, such as Praia (Cape Verde), São Tomé (in São Tomé and Príncipe), Bolama (in Guinea-Bissau), and naturally Luanda and Benguela – in addition to Quelimane and Inhambane, in Mozambique. In all of these cities there is a clear urban development, marked by the renewal of infrastructure, the creation of new road axis, and the establishment of modern-style public buildings. Nonetheless, only Luanda truly grew, becoming a vast new urban territory, slowly gaining a wider scale.

Until approximately 1860, it might be said that the expansion of the city of Luanda was relative and that its main structure had been consolidated since the mid- 18th century. This structure was based, in the traditional fashion of the Portuguese colonized city, on a coastal settlement, in a sheltered bay, with a basically defensive and commercial nature. Similarly, two distinct areas delineated the city, the upper and lower town – and, given the morphological characteristics of the area, through a cliff that marked a deep drop between the two sections, it became a physical separation, evoking an identical urban arrangement in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) or in Porto (Portugal). As for the period of transition from the 19th to the 20th century until the first quarter of the 20th century, it saw a significant extension of the area of the city, which expanded according to the several possible axis, following new grids, especially southwards and eastwards. During the consolidation or conclusion of this process, the city of Luanda would emerge in the early 20th century as a triangular or fan-like arrangement, where its three sides – upper town, lower town and the new Ingombotas expansion – radiated from the central Largo da Mutamba, with temporary southern limits at the hospital, and eastern limits at Kinaxixe. It meant a truly voluntary and continued effort of modernization of the old city, which sought to adapt itself to its function as capital of the colony and to the new scope of the vast territorial reality of Angola.

In summary, the stage that extended for little more than a century, from 1820 to 1930, was marked in the analysed areas by an intense urbanizing action, particularly in Angola and Mozambique, benefiting from projects of urbanization for new and existent cities and towns (small, medium, and large-sized) often executed in an organized manner by the Public Works engineering team according to the contemporary urbanistic models, imbibing a new European cultural technique from the industrial era.

The military occupation

Regarding military architecture, the 19th century corresponded to a period with an occupation marked by a systematic fortified element, with pragmatic purposes, but paying little attention to aesthetics. In effect, in the period analysed, the war tactics evolved considerably, shifting from processes based on defensive schemes, dependent on fortifications, to the dominant mobile war, based on more up-to-date and effective technologies of attack systems. In this context, fortifications were built more quickly and were shorter-lived – with lighter inner and outer works, based on ground-shaping, palisades, and escarpments with support walls, strongholds and ditches. The fortification process was particularly relevant, as to be expected, in the two major continental territories, which were then in a process of considerable enlargement.

In the first phase, this process developed during the so-called pacification wars; and later on, in the context of the 1914-1918 World War, with a new series of military campaigns, for a true defence of borders, particularly in northern Mozambique, within the framework of the open conflict with Germany, which controlled the neighbouring colonial territory of Tanganyika (present day Tanzania), and in south Angola, facing the German African southwest territory.

In addition to these dominant themes, there was the maintenance, reconstruction or consolidation of the fortified structures from the previous centuries of conquests – with an effort at modernization of some of them, or more rarely, a decision in favour of their demolition (Fort of Benguela). This was seen all across the Sub-Saharan overseas territories, from Cape Verde to Guinea-Bissau, from Saint John the Baptist of Ouidah to São Tomé, from the inlands of Angola (in the south, from Moçâmedes to the region of Cunene) to those of Mozambique (on the border of the Zambezi: Zumbo, in Tete).

In Angola, military activity, very intense during the second half of the 19th century to the 1910s, gives rise to the mention of several fortifications, which also served somehow as the support of the later effective and pre-urban occupation of the territory, mainly in the south. It is worth mentioning some examples, from north to south: the fortresses of Bembe (possibly dating from 1861, off the interior of Porto Ambriz); of Ambriz (19th century); in Moçâmedes, the forts Saint Rita and Saint Ferdinand, from the mid-19th century; and Capangombe, fortress of 1867-1869, which was the district seat of the Bumbo district, extinct in 1895 due to the desertion of settlers.

More specifically, in the north, it is important to mention the construction, in 1852 or 1857, of the stronghold/fortress of Malanje (then city, in 1933). This fort supported the market of Cassange and military campaigns against the Jagas in the 1850s-1860s. Malanje was a town and district seat since 1868 and a place of passage of explorers in the 1870s-1890s. Capital of the Lunda district from 1895 to 1921, it also benefitted from its military campaigns of encroachment.

In the centre worthy of note is a centre of settlement with military support: the town of Catumbela, established in 1836 as a town (called Nova Asseiceira), by decree of Queen Maria II, represented the consolidation of white encroachment in a region with numerous indigenous settlements. In 1846 Catumbela received a towering stronghold, the Fort Saint Peter (officially classified as the Stronghold of Catumbela, according to Fernando Batalha, 1963), in the shadow of which were raised buildings and streets to serve the commercial activities of black and white men (six houses for the “sons of the earth” were built in 1856).

Towards the centre-south, the village of Huíla, or Humpata, attempted to establish itself in 1769, with the name of Alba Nova (Salvador, 2003, 164). Once the settlement of Huíla was established, in 1842, it protected the colonatos (establishment of settlers) of Bibala (1867), of Saint Januário of Humpata (1880-1881), and of Saint Peter of Chibia (1883-1885, which would become a town in 1964). The fort and town of Huíla (town in 1845) are depicted in a drawing by José Leite, with perspective and plan, dating from 1865 (S.G.L. H-23, and Silveira, engravings no. 355 and 356).

In the vast Angolan south and interior the construction of fortifications was intense: “In 1886 Artur de Paiva established the military posts Queen Amélia and Queen Maria Pia on the left bank of the Cubango River” (Lobo, 1989, 295). Southwards, there were, among others: the military post of Mulondo, in Cunene River, in 1907 (Martins, 1945, 457); the Fort Luís de Bragança, in Cuamato; also in 1907, in Dembos, the Fort João de Almeida (in Maravila), the Fort of Outeiro (in Camabatela), and that of Saint Anthony (in Caculo). The year 1909 saw the construction of the Fort of Caiundo (Alto Cubango); the Fort Caju (Cunene) and that of King Manuel (Evale). From 1910 onwards, there was the construction of the Forts of Saint John of Pocolo, of Otoquero, and of Cafina. Lastly, the Fort João de Almeida (Cuíto/Cuninga) completes the system of encroachment to the south of Angola – essential in the definition and consolidation of the border. In other areas, it is worth mentioning the post of Cuílo, in Lunda, and the forts of Massango and Dalengo, in Dembos (Lobo, 1989, 296-297). In the Cunene district, over the homonimous river, and near the southern border, can be seen the ruins of the Fort Roçadas/ Xangongo from the military campaigns in 1914. From this process of military occupation resulted urban settlements – Vila Pereira D’Eça/Ondjiva (or N’giva), off the east of Xangongo, militarily occupied in the early 20th century, was elevated to town status in 1923.

As in Angola, military architecture accompanied the progress of occupation of the Mozambican territory throughout the 19th century: in 1820 the Fort Saint Anthony was built on the Island of Mozambique (Monumenta no. 2, 1966, 11), and was restored in 1892. Plans are also known of for the Fort Saint John the Baptist on Ibo Island, raised in 1817; of the Saint Sebastian Fortress in Mozambique, a 16th century work, redesigned in 1821 and 1842; of the Square of Saint James the Greater in Tete, mapped in 1855. The Fort Saint Peter of Alcântara in Tete, built in stone and clay in 1836-1837, was later destroyed and a new fort, of King Luís, was raised in the same location in 1871-1874, being made out of stone and lime. Here follows a list of other important fortifications: the Fort Queen Amélia, in Zambezia, in 1888; later on, the Fort of Chibuto, of 1897, of which there remains a plan; the Fort of Ibraímo, in 1897; the Fort King Carlos, of 1899, and the Fort Louis Philip, of 1900, in Niassa; finally, in 1912, the Fort of Tenente Valadim, in Muembe (Lobo, 1989, 297-298). The so-called pacification campaigns in the 1890s-1900s are directly connected to this series of constructions which, as can be seen, extended from the north to the south and from the coastal areas to the interior.

Lastly, it is important to mention the military campaigns undertaken during the First World War, on the border with German Tanganyika, where there was a difficult military action, namely in the row of military posts set along the right bank of the Rovuma, as in Namoto, in 1916. It was this process that enabled the preservation of all territorial areas of northern Mozambique during the period of conflict with Germany.

Religious architecture, from churches to missions

In the predominantly secular context of the 19th century urban undertakings, there was a little public investment in the religious domain, in comparison with the previous period. It is obvious that there was the construction, nonetheless, of numerous new churches, because of the profound persistence, within the Catholic-based social fabric, of the models of social hierarchy of the new communities, in which the parish located in the main church was common.

Similarly to military architecture, religious architecture did not particularly stand out in this period, whether in terms of quality of architectonic works or the capacity for innovation or introduction of new styles. We also have to consider this situation in terms of fashion and taste. The 19th century was marked by a revivalist attitude (then evolving into a period of generalized eclecticism) in the context of the rise and development of Romanticism. This attitude of return to, or evocation of models experienced in other historical periods limited from the start any attempt at change or innovation.

Therefore, we can say that the style of the new churches in African colonial territories – corresponding mainly to the new cities and towns – shifted gradually from a model along classical lines (sometimes more classical, sometimes more baroque), rooted in late 18th century themes, to romantic revival models, in which neo-Gothic played a paramount role (and also the neo-romanesque style). This could have possibly been a result of the English influence on a global scale and its capacity for international reach, as Britain had favoured these medieval models since the beginning of this period.

Hence, from the mid-nineteenth century to the transition from the 19th to the 20th century there was the initial predominance of the classical model (in modest churches in the small towns of Cape Verde – such as in Our Lady of Light, in Mindelo, of 1853-1863; in the Main Church of Maio, dating from the 1870s; or in the Church of Saint Adrian in Moçâmedes, from the 1840s-1850s). It was marked by the traditional symmetric composition, shown in the façade, with the central triangular or curved pediment flanked by one or two towers. In the decades around 1900 there is a clear development of neo-Gothic revival (in the Church of Tarrafal, in Santiago de Cabo Verde, in the original church of Lourenço Marques, of 1888, or in the Cathedral of Beira). These are examples of turreted churches, in which the tower is often set in a central position (along the lines of French Gothicism) with an emphasis on strong vertical lines and the systematic use of the ogival arch.

Throughout the 19th century colonial period, the Church somehow found a way to reinvigorate its influence, creating successive territorial works, particularly in the educational and assistance spheres. This was no longer a matter of the establishment in urban areas of the huge conventual buildings of past times, but, on the contrary, of an interest in the colonization of rural lands, the vast interior (of Angola and Mozambique) which the gradual military “pacification” made somehow available. Thus emerged the role of the missions. On the other hand, with the competition of Protestant missions which gradually established themselves in these lands, the Catholic church lost its monopoly over this kind of action.

Therefore, it is important to emphasize the role of the missions as a means of settlement and colonization of rural lands through the offer of aid and education. They consisted of clusters of buildings with varied functions, focusing on the religious domain. It is worth mentioning, as examples: in Angola, the Huíla Mission, created in 1881, which became the administrative seat of the district of Lubango in 1914 and municipality seat in 1922; the Caconda Mission, established in 1890, with a style of a general medieval derivation (neoromanesque); and in Mozambique, the Boroma Mission which, originally established as a Jesuit mission in 1885, was later led by the missionaries of the Congregation of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini). The Church of Saint Joseph of Boroma of a slightly romanesque style inspiration, whose picture was promoted in the albums of Santos Rufino, was later acknowledged as a national monument by a directive of 1945, and a School of Arts and Crafts was established there.

Infrastructure and equipment

The 19th century was a period of discovery of the wide social scope of cities and territories: this was the result of the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent urban boom, with new and extensive human communities living in the city, scattered all across Europe and America. Colonial territories were necessarily affected by this new dimension, mirroring the dynamics of the corresponding colonizing powers.

In the Portuguese case, with the known limitations, this process also took place. It may be said that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, following the meaning and importance of the new 19th century cities with a geometric pattern, the urban public areas – with the inherent contributions for contact among populations – were the most relevant deeds of that century. That is, the whole communication networks, collective infrastructures and new urban public buildings, with the areas of support for transportation, energy supply and commerce and medical, educational and civic buildings (town halls, post offices, telegraph offices).

Occupation of the area and initial systematic exploitation of tropical resources

The modern transportation system, based on a spatial and material continuity (railway, stations, warehouses), generally operating as a network, gradually organized the territories of Angola and Mozambique according to penetration lines distributed evenly across its vast territories. This arrangement of a network of railways, corresponding to the application of industrial processes to the colonial context (iron and steel architecture, the steam engine, with the subsequent increase in speed and transportation capacity), enabled the large-scale exploitation of agricultural and mineral resources in the new colonized territories.

In São Tomé and Príncipe there was the creation of plantations for cocoa and coffee. These formed agro-industrial areas adapted to the climate and insular background, benefit ting from the use of an indigenous labour force in conditions that were criticised at the time as resembling those of the old (and supposedly extinct) slavery; the resulting production was quickly taken to the export ports through small railways with open railway trucks. In the same period, in extensive Mozambican lands from 1890-1892 the grant for several decades of the economic exploitation of certain territories (Zambezia and Niassa) as a monopoly to international companies by royal appointment enabled the intensive exploitation of local natural resources, with the support of a cheap labour force.

In Angola, the railway served as a real means of control and urbanization in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, alongside the contribution of commercial, religious and military settlements and the administrative action of Norton de Matos under the First Republic. The main axis created were: the line from Luanda to Malanje, built between 1886 and 1910, and which was in State hands as early as 1929; the line from Porto Amboim to Gabela, built between 1923-1925, also by private initiative; the more extensive system built between 1903-1904 and 1929 which would extend through the territory in a west-east direction, connecting Lobito to Benguela (and reaching Nova Lisboa in 1912, Kuíto/Bié in 1923, and the border in 1929); finally, the Moçâmedes line towards inland, in the hands of the State until 1907, which reached Sá da Bandeira in 1923 and was extended in the early 1960s to Menongue. Two thirds of this network was the result of the initiative of British capital. The progress that took place in the 1910s-1930s was impressive: around 1,000 km of railway tracks in 1912, and 100 km of roads; 1,500 km of railway tracks in 1924 and 25,000 km of roads; and 2,260 km of railway tracks in 1931.

Another area where infrastructures were created was the concrete dam at Catumbela intended for the production of electric power (photographed in 1913) and dams to supply electricity to Huambo, in the 1910s. In the port sphere, the mooring berth at Lobito was under construction in 1929.

In Mozambique, the railways played the same kind of function of territorial control and unification as in Angola, and led to a significant urban development in the towns of the territory. An important example is the railway that connected Lourenço Marques to the border town of Ressano Garcia, the construction of which began in 1883 and was actively exploited from 1889-1890 in the Portuguese area, although it only reached Pretória in 1894. Other railways were created such as those from Lourenço Marques to Goba (since 1912); in the Limpopo area (from Moamba to Xinavane, 1914); in the Marracuene area, from Lourenço Marques to Vila Luísa (from 1914 to 1930); from Inhambane to Inharrime (in 1912); from Quelimane to Mocuba (from 1913 to 1922); the line to the Island of Mozambique in 1924; in the line to Gaza (in 1915); and the Tete railway, concluded in 1922.

Nonetheless, the most important line in this territory is definitely the railway from Beira to Rhodesia/Zimbawe, launched between 1893 and 1899; heading towards Nyasaland (Malawi), it is worth mentioning the iron bridge and the concrete viaduct over the Pungué River and the essential metal bridge over the Zambezi, connected to the Trans-Zambezia line (from lake Niassa to Zambezi), under construction between 1931-1935. The urban bridge over the Chiveve River, in Beira, with iron-truss spans supported on stone piers, is worthy of note.

Only in the vicinity of Lourenço Marques did the railways establish themselves as a micro-network, whereas the remaining railways can be divided into two groups: wide axis (to the south, centre and north, with an international connection, each extending for several hundred kilometres) and short or long branch lines for connection to cities such as Vila Cabral, Tete, Quelimane, and João Belo/Xai-Xai.

In the vast territory of Mozambique the longest and most structuring railways are worthy of mention, marked out in the cartography of the territory from around 1960: the Guijá Line – Lourenço Marques to Guijá; the Beira Line – Beira to Machipanda, at the border, en route to south Rhodesia; the Trans-Zambezia Line – Beira to Donana and border, heading for Nyasaland; the Tete Line – Donana to Moatize; the Nacala Line – Nacala to Cuamba (in the 1970s the line would be extended to Vila Cabral, passing through Nova Freixo, from where it changed direction towards the border).

In summary, it is important to note the connection between the different kinds of infrastructure construction in Angola and Mozambique, particularly in the period of most intense development in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century: the rail and road networks (the later emerged in a later period), the initial works for production of electric power (with dams), the construction of the first factories, and the modernization of the piers and mooring bridges-berths in urban ports. Hence the creation of a fluid system of transit on a global scale (that is, inter-colonial), enabling a motive force for the production of materials, the transportation of those materials by land and their export by sea.

One of the most characteristic phenomena of the first period of adoption of mass production schemes based on modern transportation systems were the above-mentioned plan tations (roças) for coffee and cocoa production. These assumed a peculiar character in São Tomé and Príncipe, with a clear focus on the creation of specific urban features, which is worthy of a more thorough analysis in the section devoted to these islands. One of the most spectacular cases is that of the Roça Rio do Ouro, present day Agostinho Neto, on São Tomé Island, with its territorial dimension, based and structured on vast open areas of collective use, such as the wide and long avenue connecting the hospital and the chapel to public and residential buildings.

Civil and material architecture – the romantic-revivalist and eclectic background

As mentioned previously, regarding styles of 19th century religious architecture, in the public buildings and civil works the general tendency in colonial territories – following the dominant cultural patterns of the main colonizing powers – was the use of the historical styles, including a series of models or architectural styles that usually followed patterns of revival of past eras – mainly medieval and classical-baroque.

This crisis of meaning in western architecture, which could be understood in the broader context of Romanticism, was counterbalanced by the rapid development of new technologies and corresponding original construction materials (industrial iron and steel, prefabrication, laminated glass), a result of the Industrial Revolution.

Contrary to the romantic ideal, industrial production offered urban societies a broad and accessible range of construction new materials, shapes and types, adapted to the practical needs of that period and to the newly inherent functions – with special interest in African colonial societies, where many cities were under construction, and where the access to those novelties depended on their being imported from Europe. Therefore, in the decades and regions analysed here, the context of architecture for urban public buildings was marked by diversity, often assuming a contradictory character: while artistic forms were clearly revivalist, technical solutions were often pragmatic and very modern. But we must emphasize the architectural importance and quality of many styles of public buildings erected in those territories.

In broad terms, we can consider three major categories of architectural styles between 1870 and 1930, some with a more “stylistic” character (within the styles of Romanticism and Eclecticism), others with a more “typological” nature (in terms of the use of industrial materials and techniques): the so-called “public works” architecture, of official, state or municipal initiatives (based on a group of engineers and architects who specialized in the field), which favoured the continuation and the rules of traditional public construction (which dates back to the Pombaline and post-Pombaline periods in the 18th century); this consisted in the construction of solid buildings, well equipped in technical terms, built using masonry, with wooden floors, tiled roofs (or with galvanized iron sheeting), and façades representative of sober, typified, classical or neo-classical lines – sometimes evoking the medieval period – or, in the 20th century, more eclectic, (incorporating contemporary elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, etc.); an architecture of iron, commonly used at both public and private initiative, with a pragmatic aim and vocation for public buildings (sometimes also used by the above-mentioned Public Works departments) and residential buildings, with characteristic pavilions of pre-fabricated elements resting on slender metal pillars, with wide galleries or verandas, which filled many new grid avenues in the main cities – with streets flanked by buildings with window openings protected by shutters and with facings of zinc plates, served by mechanical transportation, and enlivened with kiosks, gazebos and other structures typical of public gardens; the so-called chalet-model, a structure inspired by the regions of Central Europe, with a wide use of wood figuring in its structure and lining, with very steep roofs and projecting mouldings of decorative wood providing considerable shade – whose use spread to residential areas but was mainly used in public buildings.

Architecture on classical lines in public works

Public Works buildings or those inspired by them, include within a broad range of functions some of the most remarkable examples in the field of transport (customs houses, railway stations), in municipal seats (town halls) and in government buildings such as barracks, courthouses, and prisons.

Customs houses represent a founding theme in the modern fiscal system and of the control of port and commercial areas, essential to the urban development of the period. Hence its constant presence, usually following stylistic model along classical lines. It is worth mentioning the former Customs House of Mindelo – a single-storey building located on the bay, its main body topped by a pediment featuring an intricate architectural design, with the use of white stone and placement of window bays along classical lines. It was built between 1858 and 1861 and enlarged in 1880-1882. Also worth mentioning are the “public works” at Praia (from around 1880), at Benguela (from 1870, renovated in 1914 with metallic structures, and with a bridge-pier in 1876), at Moçâmedes (from 1863-1866), and at Sá da Bandeira, from 1900-1905.

Urban railway stations were another type of construction systematically built in this period accompanying the establishment of railways across the territory, a perfect symbol of the modernization of transportation systems and often adopting a classical design. Examples are the railways of Moçâmedes (a structure with a pediment and round-arched bays), of Benguela and of Sá da Bandeira (from 1905-1923, by architect Humberto Trindade).

Municipal buildings were another symbolic element of the urban arrangement of territories. The classical model was also the most commonly adopted: examples are the Town Hall of Mindelo (from 1862-1873, with a classical pediment and a belfry); that of Praia (from 1860), of Bolama (of an impressive size, featuring a wide central triangular pediment resting on Tuscan columns finishing off a series of bays of vertical proportions, dating from around 1900); also in Luanda (from 1890-1911, with a project by Artur Gomes da Silva); in that of Benguela (begun in 1893), in Sá da Bandeira (of 1900-1915) and in Lourenço Marques.

Government palaces showed the centralizing political control in the major urban centres. For instance, the Government Palace of Moçâmedes, a work from 1857-89 of a classical design, featuring a central triangular pediment, rounded-arch bays and a parapet over the front elevation. The adjoining building of the Courthouse, in the same city, also shows this symbolic dimension, similar to the building of Inhambane.

A different design, although along the same classical lines, characterizes the building of the Courthouse of Beira, as well as the School of Arts and Crafts in the same city: these have wide rounded-arch arcades, arranged in rows, surrounding the building, in wide verandalike structures of two-storeys, somehow evoking the public architecture of Portuguese Macao (China) around the Praça do Leal Senado, with its classical style along international lines encapsulated in the use of the rounded arch arcade.

Constructions with a greater elegance, although on the same lines, are the buildings of the post office of Lourenço Marques (by Carlos Roma Machado, of 1899), and of the Fazenda, in the same city (by Mário Veiga) – a neighbouring pair, facing the main avenue, and assum ing its functional aim with the elegant central veranda on the upper floors of both buildings. In Mindelo, it is also worth mentioning the headquarters of the former Public Works Department from 1880-1882 located in the central Rua de Lisboa.

The group of hospitals constituted an attempt at modernization of health care, replacing the old existing buildings. Its new designs were generally to create pavilion-like structures – concerned with providing the best conditions of hygiene – in which the classical model was paramount. Those worthy of mention are: the Hospital Queen Maria Pia, in Luanda (with its central body with a pediment, of 1865-1883): of King Carlos, in Benguela (of 1888, with a “radial plan” of several single-storey pavilions); the Hospital of Queen Amélia, in Moçâmedes (with a central body composed of two storeys and pediment); the Hospital of Miguel Bombarda, in Maputo (a functional work, with wide, sheltered galleries, by engineer João Ferreira Maia, of 1879, enlarged in 1889); and the imposing Hospital Novo, on the Island of Mozambique, of 1877, its execution based on a project by Isaías Newton.

Some revivalisms and examples of eclecticisms

Public works sometimes adopted the most clearly revivalist style, such as the neo-Gothic, often associated with Fortifications subjects (Praia military quarter, Cape Verde) or related to prisons (Beira Prison, Mozambique).

The most “national” Gothic theme, the neo-Manueline (from King Manuel, 16th century), which had a paramount role in Portugal between the final decades of the 19th century and the 1920s was also found in some colonial buildings, although more in the 20th century. Some examples are: the original and somewhat kitsch former Capitania dos Portos (or of Porto Grande) in Mindelo – a work from 1918-1921, concluded in 1937, which was a naïf imitation of the Belém Tower in Lisbon, with simplified forms and made of reinforced concrete, which was recently restored (2005); the Portico of the Vasco da Gama Garden, at the heart of Lourenço Marques, of 1924; and the late Álvaro de Castro Museum, in the same city, of 1931-1933.

Although more isolated cases, the so-called “exotic” revivals were also adopted in colonial territories, as common “fashion phenomena” of their period. For example, the vast Capitania Buildings, in the port of Lourenço Marques, in “colonial Dutch” (of 1899-1901, by architect F. J. Ing, built by Tom Midgely, of Durban, showing the influence of South Africa in that colony); with the Arabic or Islamic style used in the Mosque of Lourenço Marques, of 1887; and the so-called “neo-Renaissance”, which inspired the façade of the Varietá Theatre also in Lourenço Marques.

Eclecticism, corresponding to a final stage of Romanticism, crossed over into the start of the 20th century and incorporated elements from the most traditional composition (symmetrical bodies, bays arranged in series) and innovative elements, the result of the influences of the Art Nouveau that had made itself felt on a global scale since the 1900s (groupings of bays in wide glazed areas, decoration with vegetal motifs, polychrome decoration).

Some examples of eclecticism are: the Mindelo High School (former National High School), established in 1917-1921 in a former headquarters (of 1873), with a new floor, dating from 1927-1932, and a three-part bay design that evokes the high schools of Ventura Terra, in Lisbon; the Palace of the Government of Mindelo – a single-storey building of 1874, with a second floor and a curious concrete portico of 1928-1934; the Palace of Ponta Vermelha, in Lourenço Marques of 1895-1905, a stately home of elegant lines; the so-called Pott Building, also in Lourenço Marques, of 1891-1904, by Gerard Pott, consul for Transvaal; the Bank Standard, in Beira, with an impressive colonnade along classical lines on the façade; and the buildings of the Bank Nacional Ultramarino and of the Post Office and Telegraphs on the Island of Mozambique.

Three monumental buildings are especially worthy of mention with this stylistic background: The Railway Station at Lourenço Marques, with areas designed by engineer Alfredo de Lima in 1908-1910, built by Buccellato & Irmão, featuring a façade with typical French eclecticism with an extravagant decoration of the central turret by José Ferreira da Costa (1850-1919) of 1916 (who also designed the Police Station and the Bank Nacional Ultramarino of the city in 1917, also with an opulent volumetric decoration); the huge Polana Hotel, in Lourenço Marques, by Walter Reid, a south African architect, with engineer Hugo Le May, from 1917-1922; and the Palace of the Post Office, or of Communications, in Luanda of 1921- 1923 (present day Ministry of Telecommunications), with a projecting main body and with joint triple bays.

Examples of iron, reinforced concrete and chalet architecture

Examples in this area manifest the aforementioned import of prefabricated industrial materials from the more technologically advanced European countries. Many buildings could thus be erected from an essentially functional perspective, contrary to the previously characterised designer-specific architecture. This production is based on clear protofunctionalism and resulted in buildings imbued with a typological beauty standardised by the effective simplicity of profiles and industrial materials. Various period buildings with these features stand out: the former Benguela Underwater Cable Station (now the city’s University Centre), built in 1889 for telegraph services (restored in 2001), with two floors marked by modulated windows, broad metal roof and upper ventilation system; the Governor’s Palace in Bolama, a typically tropical building with extensive roofs and large covered verandas along a gallery enveloping the upper floor of its three adjacent volumes; and along the same lines, the Governor’s Palace of Cabinda, a late 19th century type featuring colonial verandas and a large tile roof. The Governor’s Palace of Benguela may be included in the same group, a two storey residence which already existed in 1880 and was later rebuilt along neo-classical lines – it is currently the seat of the Benguela Provincial Government. Worth mentioning in Lobito is the headquarters and terminus of the Benguela Railway Company, along with the broad modulated geometric pavilion architecture of the hospital and the company’s headquarters and hotel, all built in the early 20th century.

Due to their inherent nature and the functional requirements for operating in a tropical environment, marketplaces comprised an infrastructure which preferably used standardised metal construction systems that facilitated air circulation and natural ventilation. Examples include the Mindelo Municipal Market (1878, enlarged in 1930-1933), built of iron and then concrete; the Praia Market, conceived in 1873, with a pavilion structure renovated and modernised in 1929; and the biggest, the Vasco da Gama Market in Lourenço Marques, built by David & Carvalho (1901-1903).

Hotels in the early 20th century were marked by widespread use of buildings with laminated metal structures resting on thin pillars. An example is the elegant former Hotel Club in Lourenço Marques (now the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre), designed by the architects Wells & Inc. and built by Rochelle & Smith (1898).

Commercial buildings in city centres (downtown) also used standardised metal structures to ensure access to areas on several floors, thus enabling the speedy construction of buildings in areas where profitability was a concern. Examples include the Bank Ultramarino (now the Bank of Cape Verde) in Mindelo, with its iron verandas (1915 and 1922) on the city’s main street, and the group of buildings with metal verandas and patios comprising what is now the Historical Photographic Archives of Maputo. In Beira, the former Oceana Coys Building and Casa Portugal are surviving examples of this period and typology.

The so-called reinforced concrete architecture resulted in a few interesting examples of apparent structures comprising pillars and beams made of reinforced concrete. One example is the former Tea Pavilion by the shore in Maputo, from around 1900 (demolished). A noteworthy example of the residential chalet-type is the American Mission group in Luanda, also from around 1900.

Residential architecture

The frequent combination of standard metal structures and more cultured chalet forms in colonial housing at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries has already been mentioned. Emblematic examples of this mixed style are the Iron Palace in Luanda, built in 1896 by the Angola Commercial Company with exuberant metal decoration (refurbished for use as the Diamond Museum in 2008), the former Summer Palace of the governor of Lobito (three floors with curved verandas, topped by a hexagonal gazebo-like roof ); and the Iron House in Maputo (1893), construction by Belgian system patented by Joseph Danly in 1887 and manufactured by Forges d’Aiseau, with panels in galvanized steel and elements in cast iron (Guedes, 2010), a pre-fabricated plated building recently made the headquarters of the National Heritage Institute of Maputo. Another example is the stately building of residential appearance with wrap-around veranda (with balanced roof, supported by iron beams), which now houses the Portuguese Embassy in São Tomé.

From a more conventional standpoint, the colonial 19th century also resulted in numerous residential and commercial buildings in central urban contexts, with long compact volumes using traditional masonry, rammed earth and adobe methods (cheaper and more accessible materials and techniques) in wall structures, with wooden floors and tiled or metal roofs. Examples include the large traditionally-built structure housing Casa Gomes & Irmão in Lobito, with its balustrade and the modest neo-Gothic exterior bays on the upper floor, circa 1920; and, in Novo Redondo, the Casa Comercial of A. J. de Araújo dating to around 1905, with its conventional masonry ground floor and chalet-style upper floor.

A surviving example of common late 19th century construction in urban areas is the two-floor Mabílio de Albuquerque building (1894) with its round-arched bays, wrap-around cymatium and ceramic statuary, built on a central Luanda street. It evokes the “fish-canning industrials” architecture with extensive use of ceramics and polychrome found in southern Portugal’s Algarve region in the 1910s and 1920s.

 

1930-1975: urbanization, infrastructure, architecture The Modern Movement in Africa. Salazarism and Colonial War Portuguese

Africa, with Angola and Mozambique, in the Portuguese colonial space

In the first half of the 20th century the territories under Portuguese rule experienced a certain amount of colonial reinvigoration, which was intensely and violently questioned in the century’s third quarter before coming to an end. The idea of a Portuguese Africa based above all on the vast territories of Angola and Mozambique was of utmost significance during this period, as those countries were presented by the Estado Novo (Portuguese authoritarian political regime) as an integral part of the Portuguese community and as new lands of opportunity, migration and exploitation.

After the Brazilian colonial cycle, Portugal attempted to reorganise its other overseas territories. The Atlantic islands benefitted from their socio-cultural and geo-administrative closeness to the metropole (the status of Cape Verde was deemed intermediate due to its location between Africa and Europe); the areas of Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe comprised what remained of the previously larger dominated space – the Gulf of Guinea; the reduced vestiges in the Orient were definitively distant and had lost their former importance. Angola and Mozambique, on the contrary, formed extensive continental territories well suited for consolidating the new colonial strategies.

In this context, it is important to grasp the central role played by Angola and Mozambique, analysing and evaluating their corresponding colonial processes, with respect to their size and ability to attract or to the architectural and urban accomplishments. Their relationship with other Portuguese colonial territories in Africa is marked by evident contrasts in scale and consequently in the diversity and intensity of the transformations.

Creation of a colonial space during the1930s-1950s

The 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were marked in Portugal by a political readiness to define a ‘colonial space’ in ideological and mythical terms, with a view to creating a new idea of Empire based on strong historical symbolism and commemorative practice. The resulting policy, with common consolidation goals, significantly impacted the Portuguese-ruled African territories.

Presidential and political rulers visits to the colonies were quite common during this period, initially by Carmona, then by Craveiro Lopes and finally, in the 1960s and 1970s, by Américo Thomaz and Marcelo Caetano. They featured numerous inaugurations of public buildings, infrastructures and monuments to historical heroes, besides periodic propaganda exhibitions such as the 1938 Luanda Exhibition-Fair and other public celebrations (e.g. the 50th anniversary of the city of Lobito in 1962).

There was also an increase in structured planning actions and the establishment of a modern network for services, transportation and communication via construction of the respective state infrastructures and spaces. This confered a systematic nature to this modernisation process (post and telegraph offices, schools, hospitals and other facilities, etc.), with significant and extensive investments.

In this regard, it is important to highlight the official production of architecture and urbanism for the colonies, which initially in the 1920s-1930s was the irregular responsibility of experts and city planners/architects periodically stationed in the various territories. Among them was Carlos Rebelo de Andrade (1887-1971), who backed administrative initiatives for architecture and urbanization in the regions he visited. His trips to Macau, Beira and Lobito in 1929 resulted in a number of works and plans. But this itinerant system was based on individual actions with varying effects, which were not enough to ensure any effective reorganisation and modernisation of the colonial territories.

In 1932 an attempt was made to change this system, with the proposal to create in Lisbon a state urban planning service for the overseas territories: the request to the Minister of the Colonies submitted by the architect’s association for a Central Colonial Urbanism Department. But centralised coordination of urban plans production, infrastructures and related facilities was only put into practice in 1944, when the then minister Marcelo Caetano established the Gabinete de Urbanização Colonial (Office of Colonial Urbanization) – the tag do Ultramar (Overseas) was attached later. This Lisbon-based office produced a long list of urban plans supervised by the architect João António Aguiar, a disciple of the urban planner Faria da Costa, also very active in mainland Portugal, with the collaboration of other architects, among them Lucínio Cruz, Mário de Oliveira (an urban planner like Aguiar), Fernando Schiappa, José Gomes Bastos and the engineer Girão. Francisco Castro Rodrigues also worked in the same office along with his colleague Costa Martins in the late 1940s early 1950s, as did the architect Victor Consiglieri at a later date.

The office took an interventionist approach, mirroring the centralised authoritarian attitude of the State. Much of its work revolved around the architect João Aguiar, who made frequent urban planning and architectural trips to the colonies. The office also provided professional on-the-job training and indirectly promoted the different geographical regions then emerging as new residential and employment opportunities. A significant case is that of Castro Rodrigues (b. 1920), who later lived and worked permanently in Africa.

The 1940s and 1950s thus witnessed increased investment, grounded on strong technical and political bases, in both urban organisation and planning in the African territories, involving urbanization plans and the expansion of infrastructures and road/rail networks. In the following phase in the 1950s-1960s, new forms of agro-industrial settlement prevailed in recently cleared areas, with initiatives and incentives to promote migration to the colonatos agrícolas (agricultural settlements) founded along major rivers in the regions of Cunene in Angola and Limpopo in Mozambique, associated to the irrigation of large land tracts. These were mixed settlements comprising Europeans and native inhabitants. This new colonising policy was accompanied by a number of theoretical works in the urban and architectural fields, including studies on the organisation of new communities and housing spaces, covering both European-style and indigenous homes. From a formal standpoint, these accomplishments used a neo-traditional style inspired by the Portuguese architecture models then used in Portugal.

Parallel to this neo-traditional production of spaces and forms, the continual and extensive commemorative process in the overseas territories during the decades of Estado Novo rule is also noteworthy. One of the most significant examples is the Monument of the Commemorations for Prince Henry the Navigator, conceived in 1960 (under the direct responsibility of Salazar), to celebrate the fifth centennial of the prince’s death. The respective competition resulted in the selection of a memorial project-type, a sort of stylised foundation stone designed by the artist Severo Portela Júnior (1898-1985). Memorials based on this type of marker were placed in several overseas cities, among them Praia in Cape Verde; Bissau, Cacheu and Farim in Guinea-Bissau; São Tomé in São Tomé and Príncipe; and Maputo in Mozambique; as well as Dili in East Timor. A marker from this series was also raised in Torres Novas in mainland Portugal.

A new generation of architects and planners established in the colonies meanwhile began using their building practices to question the reasons behind the essentially backward looking and nostalgic official state policy. At the same time, the growing assertion of private initiative in the colonial regions began to gradually support such innovative views and approaches, rather than the centralising premises of public action and more retrograde technical and artistic conceptions.

Urban planning experiences: from reticulated and polygonal plans to the Athens Charter (1930s-1950s)

As indicated above, contemporary urban planning was asserted in the Portuguese colonies by initiative of the Office of Colonial Urbanization/Overseas particularly in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The major cities and towns benefited from studies and plans that envisaged their growth or urban expansion. This activity was especially practised in the larger territories of Angola and Mozambique, though with clear differences among them.

In Angola, the progressive unitary or unifying approach to urban planning was manifested by the organisation of homogeneous networks of new cities and towns on the coast and inland, wherein new geometric (Moçâmedes, Sá da Bandeira) and irradiating (Nova Lisboa/Huambo) urban grids had been experimented with since the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Modern urban planning was later expressed without the need for innovative demonstrations, making use of existing urban or proto-urban systems. In this regard, Manuela Fonte (2007) notes the gradual joint shift in Angola from “urban cores influenced by railway infrastructures” to those “influenced by road infrastructures”.

The former made use of earlier structures built in the 19th century, often on a grid pattern that was now adjusted to fit modern projects (usually according to Immediate Occupation Zone plans), as occurred in Malanje (1951) or on the Benguela railroad in Nova Lisboa (1947- 1948) and on the southern railway in Sá da Bandeira (1947-1949). The latter did not depend on the railway nucleus but nevertheless followed the rules of grid-based urban planning, as in Huíla (1956) and Sanza Pombo in Uige (1975). Noteworthy in Lunda region is the 1973 plan for Henrique de Carvalho (present day Saurimo) by Adérito Barros, which again follows a grid plan – a very pragmatic example of Portuguese planning in Angola.

In Mozambique, on the contrary, there was a greater need to assert modern planning in the territory, given that in the 1930s-1940s the Portuguese state assumed the control formerly wielded by monopoly companies south of the Zambezi and in Niassa. Emphasis was therefore placed on founding new administrative towns to symbolise full national dominion over the territories. In Niassa, the new district seat of Vila Cabral (present day Lichinga) stands out. Its 1931-1932 plan was an attempt to form a large irradiating octagonal core wherein the key public buildings were concentrated around the central square. It was apparently conceived based on or influenced by the agrarian projects of the Land Survey Department, and designed by either Silva Moura or António Pereira Rêlha. The plan was original and quite singular in the Portuguese colonial context, even though it stylistically recalled the 1912 plan for Nova Lisboa; it furthered the polygonal theme by creating two major systems of concentric octagonal avenues around the central hub that served as the starting point for various avenues (in Nova Lisboa there is just one roundabout with eight irradiating streets, with no complementary centred polygonal arrangement). It was actually laid out thus, though the plan’s northern sector was left unfinished.

In Manica and Sofala, territories formerly dependent on the Companhia de Moçambique, the Vila Pery/Chimoio town was established as the new district seat. A 1952 plan of this city is clearly international modern, in line with the latest period models (Athens Charter).

While this arrangement did follow the typical grid used for small urban centres, it was otherwise affected and altered by an encompassing and homogeneous system of curved roads, arranged freely and asymmetrically using a more organic approach, into which the various functional spaces and zones prescribed by modern urbanism were incorporated. These comprised the central areas, residential zones, gardens and, as colonial urbanism is concerned, the option for an indigenous zone conveniently separated from the European area by a small green space. Vila Pery was thus a rare entirely new creation following the eclectic and modernising urbanism of the garden city and neighbourhood unit inspired by the Le Corbusier’s Athens Charter and adjusted to the African colonial environment.

These new urban systems, which re-established occupation of the Mozambican interior, were accompanied by the creation of other cities, namely Nampula in the northern district, with a less innovative urban layout (simple grid plan coordinating with the railway station and with roundabouts), and the new port city of Nacala, meant to replace the old port on the Island of Mozambique, which rejected more ambitious plans and was pragmatically conceived to be a port and maritime entrepot. The 1930s and 1940s also saw the first modern urbanization projects launched in Mozambique, the settlement schemes used in the plans for Mocuba and Porto Amélia (1936), Magupe (1938), João Belo and Namaacha (1941), Inhaminga and Manhiça (1944), Mocimboa da Praia (1945), Sabié, Pafúri, Gorué (1946), Vila Luísa (1947), Bela Vista (1948) and Vila do Chinde (1950) (Mendes, 2008).

Growth of existing cities: from Cape Verde to São Tomé

In Cape Verde, the main cities of Praia and Mindelo grew only slightly. Some renovation or construction of public buildings in the 1950s and 1960s is nevertheless worth mentioning, along with the implementation of a number of new infrastructures, urban plans and modern oriented (or clearly modern) architecture in those two cities. In Praia, public buildings in the plateau historic area (the old urban core) overlooking the bay included the old Radio Club (Bank of Cape Verde in the 1990s), next to the Town Hall on the main square; on the same square by the church stands a Palace of Justice with its more vertical hard lines. The main expression of Salazarist architecture in this city is found in the severe black stone lines and emblematic tiled spire of the Praia Lyceum (former Adriano Moreira High School) fronting the 1960 Monument to Prince Henry the Navigator, as well as the city’s old small air terminal. In Mindelo, the relative economic progress of the 1920s and 1930s was mirrored by a number of urban, business-related and infrastructure projects. The 1940s, 1950s and 1960s witnessed construction of the new Eden Park Cinema and the large Navy Command building, among others.

Cities in Guinea-Bissau were also developing at a slow pace: the small colony had 350,000 inhabitants in 1940 and 544,000 in 1960. Some results of urban and territorial planning done in Lisbon are known: among them is the plan for a native village in Bafatá with its market and mosque. Examples of 20th century architecture in Bissau include public buildings with modern designs such as the Sleeping Sickness Laboratory. Others built in the Estado Novo architectural style include the Centre for Studies of Portuguese Guinea/ Ethnographic Museum (1945) and the Grande Hotel. The Post Office (1950) and main hospital of Bissau (1951-1953) attributed to Lucínio Cruz, as well as the Commercial, Industrial and Agricultural Association (by Jorge Chaves, 1949-1953), indicate the transition from Estado Novo architecture to more modern lines. The city’s mosque design, prior to 1966, is modern, though it has a somewhat rough appearance. The Cathedral displays a revivalist or neo-traditional lines, while the former Government Palace reproduces the official, neotraditional style. The air terminal in Bissalanca, the customs house building in the city centre, the Port of Bissau Administration and the Rebelo da Silva Primary School are examples of functional architecture adjusted to colonial territories.

Urbanization in São Tomé and Príncipe tested new planning approaches. Examples include the Plano de Urbanização de São Tomé (São Tomé Urbanization Plan) and the draft Ante-Plano de Santo António (Santo António Preliminary Plan) – attempts to modernise two small cities in line with the international garden city model prevalent in the 1940s and 1950s, with tree-lined avenues, roundabouts and separate single-family plots, etc. In the city of São Tomé, several representative 20th century styles are found, especially overlooking Ana Chaves Bay, ranging from the modernism of the 1930s and 1940s to modern architecture of the 1950s and 1960s. But traditional buildings prevail, successively altered and modernised: the Cathedral was rebuilt in the 20th century (1939 and in 1959) by governor Vaz Monteiro in a simplified neo-romantic revival style, as were other Portuguese-African churches of the time; the symbolic classical Government Palace has been much modified over the decades.

Evolution of cities in Angola

In the region around the historic capital of Luanda, small settlements gradually defined a complementary area of influence, examples being Ambriz and N’Zeto. In Angola’s northern interior Henrique Galvão (1895-1970), from his ideological and nationalistic perspective, also mentions the two towns which grew most significantly: Uige, raised to city status in 1956 and N’dalatando in Kwanza Norte, named Salazar in 1936. In the far north, the same author mentions the Cabinda enclave bordering what was then the Belgian Congo; like other settled areas, in the mid-twentieth century it also experimented a plan following the garden city model.

Luanda was significantly compared by the same author to Maputo, given that the former sprawled over the rugged local topography, while the later advanced over its respective area according to a grid plan. Luanda grew substantially from the 1930s to 1950s, with the population rising from 60,000 inhabitants in 1940 to 140,000 in 1950, 225,000 in 1960 and nearly 500,000 in 1968, with a continually growing percentage of whites. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed the creation of new port facilities which grew along a somewhat radial pattern, as well as the development of new areas with abundant use of tree-lined squares and alamedas in local centres with irregular grids.

Malanje was founded in 1852 in the interior highlands east of the capital and developed in the 20th century according to modern plans following the garden city model. Novo Redondo (Sumbe) in Kwanza Sul along the coast kept its small scale during the period, with reduced growth. Huambo, established in 1912-1913, grew considerably after the 1930s. Its system of rectilinear avenues connected to a large central roundabout resulted in a structured and modern expansion process, noted by Henrique Galvão and nearly half a century later by the writer Ondina Braga (1994). Benguela, a very old city dating to the Philippine dynastic period, grew slowly throughout the 20th century, gradually losing ground to Lobito on the coast and Huambo in the highlands. The commercial and port terminus of the railway connecting the coast to the frontier was in nearby Lobito, where traffic was directed, while strong urban growth in the central highlands was mainly concentrated in Huambo and Silva Porto in Bié.

Lobito was built on a long sandy coastal strip north of Benguela and emerged due to its port, built in 1902-1928 and enlarged in 1957. Raised to city status in 1912, it soon emerged as a major urban centre. Growth and expansion in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in a population of about 50,000 inhabitants in 1960. The Benguela Railway Company (CFB) played a significant role, as it built quarters and social facilities here and in Huambo, as well as in the small settlements that emerged along the railway line (c. 1,350 km long). The railroad thus served as an urbanising axis for territorial penetration, with macro-linear characteristics reminding to a certain degree the Ciudad Lineal theory developed by Soria y Mata (1844-1920) in Madrid for Spain’s central highlands in the early 20th century.

Due its exceptional nature with respect to the presence of architectural experts in the colonies, it is important to highlight the work of the architect Francisco Castro Rodrigues, a municipal employee in Lobito from 1953 to 1988. He was responsible for urban plans and the construction of infrastructures, public facilities and collective housing, some within the scope of social housing. His works found in other cities and towns in the region around Lobito (Sumbe/Novo Redondo, Ganda/Mariano Machado) reveal a professional and ethical consistency.

In Angola’s central and southern regions, various settlements systems were experienced, among them the colonato with rural characteristics, mainly used in the 1950s. The community of Cela/Wako Kungo (whose villages and locations were named after places in Portugal, such as Santa Comba, raised to city status in 1970) was conceived solely for white settlers, with single-storey houses built in a crypto-regional style in a project developed from 1952. In Cunene, the extensive irrigation plan envisaged by the engineer Trigo de Morais (1895-1966) resulted in a mixed agricultural settlement in a region where the architects João José Tinoco and Vasco Morais Soares respectively worked in architecture and urban planning. A tender from the then High Council of Overseas Development (Conselho Superior de Fomento Ultramarino) selected projects for colonists’ housing in this area of Cunene (and also for Limpopo in Mozambique). Caconda had an agricultural colony solely for indigenous residents. Also noteworthy is the settlement of Bengo near Luanda, supported by the Kwanza-Bengo hydro-agricultural project. Significant is the cluster of buildings in the small industrial city of Alto Catumbela, situated on the bank of the Catumbela River midway between Lobito and Huambo in the interior. It boasted a major factory complex, with its offices and housing, the Companhia de Celulose do Ultramar, which exploited vast eucalyptus forests and hydroelectric power.

Finally, worth mentioning in southern Angola is the corresponding development of two cities that structured the region’s urban growth, founded there in the second half of the 19th century: Sá da Bandeira/Lubango (in the Huila highlands, made a city in 1923) and Moçâmedes/Namibe (on the coast, city in 1907). From their foundation both were served by urban grid frameworks which were used, developed and modernised by plans from the Office of Colonial/Overseas Urbanization from the 1930s to 1950s. As for Moçâmedes, the economic and commercial role played by the city’s mineral port must be highlighted. Its harbour shipped iron from 1967 onwards, similar to the system used in Lobito to export copper, transported until then by the Benguela Railway. Other towns in the southern Angolan interior can also be mentioned, via a sort of colonial-touristic route devised by Galvão: Moxico/Vila Luso/Luena in the Moxico region, raised to city status in 1956, a modern and trade-oriented city; Serpa Pinto/Menonge in the Cuando-Cubango region, made the new district seat in 1961, where an architecture along traditional Portuguese lines was manifested alongside modern-oriented projects; the small coastal centres of Porto Alexandre/Tombwa (city in 1967) and Baía dos Tigres in the Moçâmedes/Namibe region in the far south; Gabela, a town linked to coffee cultivation (city in 1962); and Massangano, marked by its old military monument.

Also worthy of mention are: Henrique de Carvalho/Saurimo in the Lunda region (district capital in 1923 and city in the late 1950s); and Silva Porto/Kuito in Bié (designated Silva Porto in 1922, city in 1935 – which had been renamed Belmonte when re-established in 1853 over the older Bié dating to 1768).

Other settlements of less importance were also successively raised to city status: Salazar/N’dalatando in Kwanza Norte, Carmona/Uige and Cabinda (1956), General Machado/Camacupa in Bié, Cubal and Mariano Machado/Ganda in Benguela (1969), Negage, Santa Comba and Roberto Williams/Caála, the later in Huambo (1970). The frontier town of Vila Teixeira de Sousa/Luau, situated where the Benguela line entered Angolan territory (near the Lunda/Moxica border), merited an urban reorganisation plan by Francisco Silva Dias in 1959-1960, which introduced modern elements via a zoning system and redesigned and enlarged the old central square by the railway station.

It is worth mentioning other minor settlements, from north to south in Angola: Santo António do Zaire/Soyo and Noqui on the Congo (Zaire) River; Salvador do Congo/M’banza Congo in the interior, south of that river; the Portugália/Dundo or Chitato in the northernmost region of Lunda, and Lucapa south of Dundo; Cazombo on the Zambezi River in east ernmost Moxico; Vila Gago Coutinho/Lumbala in southern Moxico; Teixeira da Silva/Bailundo in Huambo; Vila Artur de Paiva/ Cubango in easternmost Huila; Quipungo/Matala in central Huila; Vila Pereira D’Eça/Ondjiva in southern Cunene; and Cuangar in Cuando-Cubango.

Evolution of cities in Mozambique

This period witnessed major development in many of the previously established urban centres. The two main cities were consolidated and expanded: Maputo (provincial capital, connecting to nearby urban centres in South Africa, from Johannesburg to Pretoria and Durban) and Beira (an important hub in central area of the territory, at the crossroads of the traditionally more urbanised north-south coastline and the large Zambezi basin, a natural east-west axis for accessing the interior).

It also saw the growth of medium-sized urbanized cores such as Quelimane or Inhambane and the foundation of other which grew quickly, such as Nampula. Other smaller villages in the area of influence of Maputo, such as João Belo/Xai-Xai and Ressano Garcia, also evolved.

The modern harbours were well equipped in Maputo and Beira, while new port cities were founded, among them Nacala (near Nacala Velha), which replaced the old docks on the Island of Mozambique. Also noteworthy is the gradual importance increase of the frontier towns in the interior over the smaller historic towns on the coast. Vila Cabral/Lichinga, Tete and Vila Pery/Chimoio are examples of this process.

In this regard, the number of inhabitants of the main Mozambican cities associated to the date when they were raised to city status can provide a general overview of each degree of urbanization: Quelimane, on the coast, founded in the 18th century, was only elevated to a city status in 1942 (64,000 inhabitants in 1950), when it was Mozambique’s second largest city in terms of population. Other cities, though smaller, grew substantially: João Belo/Xai- Xai, with 49,000 inhabitants (city in 1961, capital of Gaza district); Tete, 38,000 in 1951 (city in 1959); Vila Cabral (present day Lichinga), 28,000 (city in 1962); and Porto Amélia (Pemba) 21,000. The third-ranking city, Inhambane, became a city in 1956. Lourenço Marques (present day Maputo) experienced significant population growth: in 1928 it counted about 37,000 inhabitants; by 1950 this number had increased to 93,000 inhabitants, including 23,000 whites; though still relatively small, Angoche/António Enes, municipality seat 1934, was made a city status in 1970.

Some specific aspects of several of these cities should be mentioned: Porto Amélia/ Pemba developed modestly, becoming the capital of Cabo Delgado district in the far north; Tete grew very slowly throughout the 20th century, due to its extremely interior location and consequent isolation. Also worth mentioning is the Vila de Manica, seat of the municipality of the same name, which was made a town in 1956 and raised to a city status in 1972.

In southern Mozambican territory, many villages near Maputo developed due to their closeness to the capital, for either industrial (Matola), agricultural (along the Limpopo val ley) or commercial reasons, as railway linking or crossing places around the city. Such was the case, for example, of Ressano Garcia (on the frontier), João Belo/Xai-Xai and Chibuto.

Finally, we should mention new occupation and population forms in Mozambique at the initiative of Trigo de Morais: the agricultural colonies founded in the 1950s and 1960s in the Limpopo region. They were served by considerable large dams with the implementation of agricultural irrigation systems which enabled the urbanization and territorial organisation of new areas, as well as the establishment of European settlements.

Architecture of infrastructures and amenities

The most impressive or forthright works built in the colonies under the public works policies during the Salazar era are logically found in Angola and Mozambique. They mainly concern the transportation network and the production and exploitation of energy resources. Yet those policies were poorly implemented until the 1950s. For example, in Mozambique, in addition to the continual efforts to develop the railway network, a number of bridges were built. The most remarkable is perhaps the large bridge over the Zambezi begun in 1931 and finished in 1935 – then the biggest in Africa. It is located between Sena and Dona Ana and is around 3,677 metres long with 33 sections each measuring 80 metres. Others built in the 1930-1940 period include the General Bettencourt Bridge in Matola (with arched upper beams of reinforced concrete); the bridge over the Mocuba River in Zambezia (Cardeal Cerejeira road bridge, inaugurated in 1944); and the bridge over the Licungo, done in a late Art Deco style with pillars bearing Christian crosses at the top.

Concerning port works, worth mentioning is the new Port of Maputo, enlarged in 1929-1930. The new Gorjão pier and the electric power station behind the railway station are also significant. Other utilities and infrastructural works in the city included the large iron sheds built for the cement factory and the refrigerated warehouse.

Infrastructures and amenities multiplied from the 1950s onwards. In Angola, the road network grew from 35,500 km in 1960 to 72,000 km in 1967. The rail network grew less: 2,260 km in 1940; 3,200 km in 1967. Also significant was the increase in air traffic, which began in 1930, developing rapidly until the 1950s and 1960s with the establishment of airfields and airports in the main towns and cities.

The road network in Angola was overseen by the national bureau of roads (JAEa – Junta Autónoma de Estradas de Angola, now the INEA – Instituto Nacional de Estradas de Angola), which planned new headquarters buildings in all the district capitals. Standing out in the 1960s are a number of modern buildings designed and built by Luís Taquelim in Benguela, Silva Porto, Carmona, and Moçâmedes, among others.

Hydraulic and hydroelectric projects played a notable role, making use of energy provided by nature. Such undertakings include the large Mabubas Dam on the Dande River built in 1953 and inaugurated by the President of the Portuguese Republic in 1954, which supplied electric power and water to Luanda; the hydroelectric plant at Mid-Kuanza, together with the Cambambe Dam; and the plant at Alto Catumbela, planned in 1961. Also noteworthy on the Catumbela River is the Biópio/Craveiro Lopes Dam, by a team that included the architect João José Tinoco, inaugurated in 1956. It was endowed with a modern power station building with a long façade and vertical screens, as well as a residential area on the adjacent slope, designed by Nuno Craveiro Lopes (according to Castro Rodrigues).

In 1965 commemorative stamps were issued and depicted the following Angolan infrastructures: the Luanda refinery, the dams of Cambambe (on the Kwanza River), Matala, (or Salazar) on the Cunene, Teófilo Duarte (on the Dande), Mabubas, Biópio/Catumbela (or Craveiro Lopes) and Cuango, as well as various bridges over rivers such as the Kwanza named Salazar, Teófilo Duarte and Silva Carvalho.

The Kwanza Bridge at the river’s mouth was conceived as a suspended metal structure with reinforced concrete towers (central span measuring 260 metres) by the engineer Edgar Cardoso (1913-2000); its construction began in 1970. Other bridges designed by Edgar Cardoso are those over the Cunene, Dande, Longa and Queve rivers, as well as the bridges for the Moçâmedes railway, using continuous beams of pre-stressed concrete, and for the Congo line and the Cassalá-Quitungo branch. The large S-shaped road through the Chela escarpment between Moçâmedes/Namibe and Sá da Bandeira/Lubango, with its abrupt 1,000 metres elevation, was one of the last major large-scale works of the colonial period (by engineer João Teles Grilo with Edgar Cardoso, 1968-1975).

Regarding infrastructure, also noteworthy are the lighthouses on the Angolan coast, possibly from the 1920s-1930s: they comprise a group of white tower buildings whose Art Deco forms included an inscribed emblematic Cross of Christ. An example is the lighthouse at Quicombo Cape.

In Mozambique, the rail network begun in the late 19th century and was only completed much later, in the second half of the 20th century; the lines across the territory in the last decades of the colonial period (1960s-1970s) upped the status of small villages along routes or at borders. Many were newly founded settlements with exclusively railway roots. To wit, note the rail network’s growth from 2,500 km in 1935, sharply rising in the 1950s and 1960s to 3,500 km in 1967.

More impressive than the railways’ expansion was the increase of the road network that measured 14,000 km in 1928. By 1967 it had more than doubled to 38,000 km. In 1948- 49 the colonial administration commemorated these infrastructure projects and other public spaces by issuing stamps depicting the 1930s bridge over the Zambezi and Sete de Março Square in Maputo, among others; new infrastructures such as ports, dams and bridges were commemorated in 1963.

Regarding roads, also noteworthy is the role played by the small service station buildings for the fuel supply networks in Angola and Mozambique. A good example of such an urban structure is the model petrol station designed by the architect Nuno Craveiro Lopes, exploring the exposed structure of reinforced concrete beams and pillars, which was repeatedly built in Mozambican towns.

As for late colonial bridges built in Mozambique in the 1960s and 1970s, noteworthy examples include the road suspension bridge over the Save River by Edgar Cardoso; the anchored bridge over the Limpopo in Xai-Xai, also by Edgar Cardoso; the bridge over the Inharrime River (under construction until 1966); the multiple-arch bridge over the Incomati River (1960s); and the bridge over the Zambezi in Tete, again by Edgar Cardoso, the biggest work of all. Likewise worth mentioning are two other bridges by that engineer: the metallic bow-string span over the Pungué River, and the singular 3,400-metre long bridge linking the Island of Mozambique to the mainland, built in the 1960s.

Some dams and hydroelectric structures are significant due to their large scale. Examples include the following: the Chicamba Real/Oliveira Salazar Dam in the uplands of Manica and Sofala; the Lionde Station in the Limpopo Valley (around 1966); the bridge-weir over the dam on the Limpopo River, inaugurated in 1956; the Monapo River Dam near the city of Nampula (until 1966); and, naturally, the Cahora-Bassa Dam mega-work in Tete, conceived and developed in 1969 (under construction from 1972 to 1975), which still keeps its global usage, with its large turbine room resembling a huge artificial grotto, being the most remarkable work in architectural terms, and which included several nearby support facilities.

In the late colonial period airport networks complemented the road and rail networks. The macro-regional extent of airline routes resulted in facilities ranging from small airstrips to full-blown international airports with their corresponding terminals, warehouses and hangars, etc. In Angola, the airports most noted for their architecture are the ones serving two major cities: Luanda’s dates to 1947-1950 and was designed by Keil do Amaral (1910-1975) on the austere modern lines of Portela Airport in Lisbon; it was inaugurated by Craveiro Lopes in 1954. Lobito’s airport building of great structural transparency and elegance by Castro Rodrigues, dates from 1964.

In Mozambique, a number of buildings associated to air transport are also noteworthy. Considered together, they form a high architectural quality group along the modern architecture lines from that period. Besides two major infrastructures in Maputo and Beira (both by Cândido Palma de Melo (1922-2003), a disciple of Keil do Amaral), those designed by João José Tinoco together with Carlota Quintanilha, António Matos Veloso, Octávio Rego Costa and Alberto Soeiro stand out. They represent a continuous work for air navigation to serve essential territorial connections from the south to the far north. These are very elegant works, featuring a modern layout. Examples include the airports of Nampula, Porto Amélia/ Pemba, Vila Cabral/Lichinga and Tete.

Estado Novo architecture and the new architectural movements

Most of the urban and architecture plans listed in the previous paragraphs were official initiatives, planned either in Lisbon or commissioned and built by colonial governments. In the 1930s and 1940s the resulting architecture generally followed the rigid formal canons of Estado Novo architecture. However, from the early 1950s on the architectural and urban planning contexts changed, especially in Angola and in Mozambique, leading to the rise of an aesthetic architecture using modern techniques, even when initiated within an official project framework.

By that time most cities already had sufficient administrative buildings. Government efforts then tended to focus on amenities and infrastructures. Also, the emergence and international success of an architecture less indebted to conventional concerns inspired openness to new more modern models, as in Europe and America throughout the 20th century and especially since the arrival and adoption of the International Modern architecture and urbanism movement (1919-1927) which spread internationally after World War II. Although somewhat behind Europe and America, the urban architecture resulting from planning methods in the Portuguese African colonies reflected that situation, which was marked by far-reaching and fast-paced transformations.

This enabled more use of reinforced concrete and complementary technologies in most buildings (internal services with electrical systems, lifts, glass covering large surfaces, concrete slab ceilings, natural convection-based ventilation systems and concrete roofs). A new scale and construction language was also adopted to facilitate the use of cement produced by local factories as well as imported steel in the major cities from the mid-twentieth century on. Public and private construction initiatives were also boosted by the use of local and very affordable manpower. A collective prospect of rapid material progress was increasingly assumed by urban developers and investors, besides involving project designers, architects and engineers, many of them resident in the main colonial cities.

In this regard, although the national context of the Salazar regime and its centralising ideological approach had created a sort of state-controlled/interventionist architecture along neo-traditional or neo-classical lines, above all in the 1930s-1940s (similar to what was occurring in mainland Portugal), the modern international-influenced aspect of urban architecture was consolidated in all areas of intervention and building in the following decades, i.e. the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 1970s the international modern architecture models were consistently applied in all areas. The outbreak of the Colonial War (1961-1974) only served to boost the urban and architectural development capabilities of the previous decade, resulting in faster construction dynamics involving both public and private initiative, with the corresponding growth of most urban centres.

We can therefore consider three major architectural sub-phases from the 1930s to the mid-1970s. The first is modernist architecture, with the gradual use of modern materials in construction and the widespread employment of reinforced concrete in works depicting that tendency by their geometric forms, with a certain amount of decorative or otherwise geometric features along Art Deco lines. This period ran from the early 1930s to the 1940s. The second is the architecture of the Estado Novo, a style otherwise known as Português Suave (Bland Portuguese) which developed from 1940 into the 1950s and saw the emergence of neo-traditional architectural models along neo-classical, neo-baroque lines or the national neo-Joanine [after King João V (r. 1706-1750)] variant, with regionalist models also transposed to the colonies in an eminently ideological manner. It was particularly used in public architecture, though also influencing projects based on private initiative. Finally, the so-called modern architecture, which generically appropriated the features of modernist architecture and radicalised them, stripping them of all decorative elements, with a vocabulary expounding the primacy of rationalism and functionalism based on a more technological approach to contemporary materials. This tendency prevailed from the mid/late 1950s to 1975, the independence period.

Obviously these three phases only followed each other from a strictly schematic standpoint, for there was a certain amount of overlapping, especially between the modernist and neo-traditional periods, in the 1940s, and between the later and the modern phase, essentially in the 1950s and early 1960s.

New generations and architectural practice: from the 1950s to 1975

Another important aspect enabling a better understanding of the modernist, neotraditional and modern decades is the emergence of the so-called designer-specific architecture. Indeed, several architects produced a large number of works consisting of buildings designed and executed mainly for urban contexts, invaluable works as a whole with the vocabulary developed and perfected by each architect. These authors, often resident in the major urban centres, were significant in the last 25 years of the colonial period (1950-1975) and can be identified as the modern architects of Angola and Mozambique. In most cases they also played a key role in urban planning and as intellectuals, or in civic and cultural action in their respective fields of intervention.

Choosing amongst proeminent names of modern architecture in Luanda, we should mention Vasco Vieira da Costa (1911-1982), Fernão Lopes Simões de Carvalho (b. 1929), José Pinto da Cunha (1921-2007) and António Campino (1917-1997), as well as João Garcia de Castilho (1915-2007), working in Luanda, and Francisco de Castro Rodrigues (b. 1920), resident in Lobito. In Mozambique, noteworthy architects are Pancho Guedes (b. 1925), João José Tinoco (1924-1983) and Nuno Craveiro Lopes (1921-1972), who worked in Maputo, and Paulo Sampaio (1926-1968), João Afonso Garizo do Carmo (1917-1974) and Francisco de Castro (b.1923), the latter three in Beira.

To better understand the role played by architects one must consider their importance in mainland Portugal during the same period, for it was a class that strove to gain civic freedoms and political participation while fully aware of their professional duties. These consisted of making architecture accessible to the underprivileged through knowledge and awareness of the respective values (such as popular architecture) as part of the common heritage of Portuguese society, and also involved teaching and promoting modern architecture along with its industrial and social components, as a way to achieve the societies undergoing urbanization. The open and enlightened teaching of architecture at Porto’s Escola de Belas Artes (Fine Arts School), where many of the architects in Africa had studied, was then under the supervision of Carlos Ramos, an active symbol of all the above themes.

The aims and intents of these architects prospered when exposed to the scale of the African territories. The quality and scope of the work accomplished in Portuguese colonial architecture in Africa during the studied period may be considered identical or even superior in many ways to contemporary constructions in mainland Portugal. More investment, energy and modernity resulted in unique works. In European Portugal nothing similar with the same functions was done. The following examples are indicative: the Beira Railway Station, Angola Broadcasting building, Luanda’s Quinaxixe Market, Polana Church in Maputo and the open-air Flamingo Cinema in Lobito.

The 1950s: modern architecture

Indeed, the 1950s witnessed a significant evolution of urban-architectural practice in Angola and Mozambique, compared to the previous decades. The conservative approach of Estado Novo architecture came into conflict with the dynamic and up-to-date perspective of modern architecture. Yet it was not a very consistent barrier due to the distance separating the colonial territories from the architects in mainland Portugal bound to the more ‘official’ and ‘hard’ vocabularies: here in Africa, the influence of works of retrograde expression was more slightly felt. The conflict was nevertheless evident and occasionally polarised by specific situations, as attested by two projects in Luanda. The early 1950s Bank of Angola building by Vasco Regaleira (1897-1968) is exemplary from this standpoint and consists of a large baroque-classical building situated on Luanda’s shoreline coastal avenue, a striking symbol of monumental architecture recalling forms from the past. It totally and impressively contrasts with another more radically modern contemporary building: the Quinaxixe Market by Vasco Vieira da Costa, not far from the former’s location, but very different in terms of the vocabulary used and the new technical qualities expressed.

The plans designed by the Office of Colonial/Overseas Urbanization, and architectural projects for state facilities which, institutionally or otherwise, found their way to Africa in the 1940s-1950s stressed a link to academic or traditionalist forms, techniques and styles deriving from the repressive context in Portugal. This was a persistent link which took a long time to totally disappear. The more peripheral the location of that production, the more directly it was associated to plans and models from Portugal; the tendency was also more lasting. One pertinent example is the Town Hall and Courthouse of Vila Luso/Luena in remote Moxico (eastern Angola), with its extensive tiled roof bordered by eaves in a traditional style enhanced by the central portico and symmetrical façade composition. It was built in 1959, long after modern architectures had taken a hold in the capital via projects such as the aforementioned Quinaxixe Market (Comércio de Angola, April 9, 1959).

In any case it is noteworthy that other programmes following a more conservative tradition, namely involving religious architecture, were to a certain degree open to change: one example is Luanda’s Church of the Holy Family from the early 1960s; its tower features an abstract design and structurally expressed volume – the city’s first encounter with the modern idea of a holy space. The result was a relative renewal of religious architecture, as was then occurring in Lisbon.

Another compromise between innovation and traditionalism can be seen in central government buildings, which were somewhat open to modern design in volumes and geometry, though maintaining a heavy monumental appearance with respect to typology and materials. One example is the Glass Palace on Diogo Cão Square in Luanda, by Luís Amaral and João Américo.

In this regard, note the account by Francisco Silva Dias (Fernandes, Geração Africana, 2002). This architect (b. 1930), who lived in Luanda in the late 1950s, described how close that city’s daily life and social routines were to those of Lisbon. This was reflected in an environment that favoured social relations and personal proximity between the city’s construction entities (developers, industrialists, investors, technicians and municipal and government representatives) and resembled the situation in Lisbon at the time, with their little games, conflicts and exchanges of influence, albeit with an African colonial/tropical flair. The socially oriented atmosphere in Luanda was associated to a certain amount of cue-taking regarding what was happening in Lisbon – not a new phenomenon. It recalled Rio de Janeiro in the early 19th century, a situation that persisted long after [Brazilian] independence, with Rio keeping abreast of the latest Lisbon trends that affected street life and urban spaces as well as manners of building and using the city.

The relative political openness felt in Lisbon between 1958 and 1961 also impacted cultural and social life in the main African colonial cities – Luanda and Lobito, Praia and Mindelo, Bissau and São Tomé. In Lourenço Marques, however, although ties to Lisbon were strong, the effect was weaker due to the competing closeness of English-speaking colonies. This phase also corresponded to a period of Luanda-centred cultural debate in Angola, with the timid emergence of a left-wing culture, in so far as it was tolerated by the Portuguese colonial regime, and which also involved some architects, among them the aforementioned Francisco Silva Dias as well as José Pinto da Cunha. In Mozambique, the left was more pluralistic and less beholden to Lisbon, counting on the participation of architects such as João José Tinoco, Bernardino Ramalhete (b. 1921) and, in a very personal manner, Pancho Guedes.

The participation of architects based in Angola and Mozambique in African international gatherings and professional conferences, though held irregularly, fostered the sharing of experiences and influences, thereby supporting a dynamically modern autonomous cultural debate, especially when backed by local associations such as the Núcleo de Arte and Cineclub of Lourenço Marques. In Mozambique, the nearness of Anglophone Africa, with its greater openness and up-to-date information, along with the somewhat snobbish and elite minded traditions prevailing in urban artistic and architectural circles, also helped break down the mental isolation of government officials. Architects with a mature social and political awareness, such as the aforementioned João José Tinoco and his friends and acquaintances played a key role in this process. Other architects such as Pancho Miranda Guedes also contributed to this cultural debate, not via politics but rather due to their cosmopolitan culture and participative and heterodox attitude. Discussions tended to focus, for example, on the poor living and housing conditions of the black population on the outskirts of Maputo, who dwelt in vast areas corresponding to Luanda’s musseques.

In addition to the noble activities mentioned above, some of this group’s architects designed industrial buildings, especially in the Maputo and Luanda areas. They are noteworthy for their high architectural quality, modern design and functional purpose. Examples include the Faminbor bicycle factory in Luanda by Vasco Vieira da Costa, the Cacuaco road and the Sofanco beverage factory by Pinto da Cunha, Simões de Carvalho and Fernando Alfredo Pereira in the same city. In Benguela, the 1972 Tobacco Factory by Francisco de Castro, is worthy of mention. In Lourenço Marques, three innovative buildings by João José Tinoco are significant: the A Reguladora de Moçambique timepiece factory, with its interesting modulation in distinct bodies and rhythmic triangular profile (1970); the Entreposto Comercial de Moçambique (Trade Entrepot of Mozambique) by António Matos Veloso (b. 192...), with expressive use of exposed concrete (1970); and, also with António Matos Veloso and Octávio Rego Costa (b. 1922), the Companhia de Cimentos de Moçambique (Cements Company of Mozambique) in Língamo (1960s). Also significant in Lourenço Marques is the innovative Saipal Bakery in Alto Maé by Pancho Guedes (1952-1954), a special neo-expressionist design unique among the rationalist production usually associated to industry – a result of its designer’s heterodox and non-conformist genius.

Colonial War and urbanization in the 1960s-1970s

The late colonial period of the 1960s and 1970s saw a final attempt to impose the concept of a multiracial nation, partly in response to the war then being waged on three fronts in Africa. This led to more public investment to modernise infrastructures, boost energy production and create comprehensive industrial bases, with larger hydroelectric dams compared to those built the previous decade. The main cities and their expansion areas grew at a much faster pace, accompanied by the renovation of infrastructures and services, the private construction of larger buildings in central areas and the first experiments with the self-construction of social housing for indigenous populations, an example being the quarters designed by Castro Rodrigues in Lobito in the early 1970s. This period also witnessed institutionalised and widespread promotion of the aforementioned new architectural style represented by the International Modern Movement.

Up to the mid-1960s, most existing Angolan and Mozambican villages grew slowly and gradually. Particularly of note were the newly founded settlements, above all in the interior, such as the agricultural settlements in Cunene (southern Angola) and Limpopo (southern Mozambique) in the 1950s-1960s. In the apparently peaceful context of the 1940s-1950s the Salazar regime invested heavily in urbanization plans, though during the subsequent period of conflict it backed efforts on a larger territorial scale, as exemplified by regional plans in the 1960s-1970s. This rather oppressive centralism did not hamper the gradual emergence of qualified urbanization experts, mainly architects, who were able to implement in major African cities and the design of some smaller cities the new theories of post-war International Modern urbanism as set out in the Athens Charter.

From this standpoint, it is important to highlight the Luanda urban projects of Simões de Carvalho and Vasco Vieira da Costa, who had both worked with Le Corbusier’s teams in Paris; of Francisco de Castro Rodrigues in Angola’s second city, Lobito, where he lived from 1953 to 1988; and of the architect Fernando Mesquita in the municipality of Lourenço Marques/ Maputo. Among the many others who implemented modern urbanization plans for most Mozambican villages, towns and cities, overhauling the entire planning system from 1950 to 1970, were Paulo Sampaio, Bernardino Ramalhete, Francisco de Castro, João José Tinoco, Carlos Veiga Pinto Camelo and Nuno Craveiro Lopes, etc.

In the final years of this period, the colonial war also originated a sort of defensive urbanism based on planned geometric settlements brought on by the need to move large population groups to guerrilla-free areas where they could be more easily controlled. These measures, conceived or envisaged in the early 1970s in coordination with military planners, or on their initiative, especially in Mozambique (general Kaúlza de Arriaga) and Guinea-Bissau (general António de Spínola), were nevertheless not fully implemented on a large scale.

The modernised port/rail systems were also strategically important and directly tied to political/military efforts to contain the guerrillas active since 1962-1963 in southern and eastern Angola. Indeed, the bordering countries, in this case Zambia, opposed sabotage attacks on Angolan railways by the liberation movements (which they otherwise backed), as those railways then comprised their only means to export mineral resources.

The airport networks basically complemented the road and rail networks during the late colonial period. The macro-regional reach of airline routes led to the creation of a full range of support facilities, as mentioned above.

Amenities and their architecture – main developed themes

The following pages focus on amenities (and housing) and aim to summarise the principal functional variants in the extensive building process undertaken mainly in cities and towns from 1930 to 1975. Indeed, this period witnessed a gradual total consolidation of modern architectural typologies and designs (despite the aforementioned intermediate neotraditional stage) in major and minor colonial centres.

As indicated above, the widespread appearance of modern architecture involved a number of concurrent factors that helped accentuate the process: solid construction (easy access to concrete and steel), and a socio-economic (strong private initiative based on successive production cycles and a cheap labour) and cultural (well-informed and skilled experts) base. Exemplary works in the various fields of architecture and urbanism involved the following: in the area of religion, social care and education and on church, state or some private initiative; projects often associated schools and religious spaces or care facilities and chapels. Regarding church architecture, new projects often resulted from renovations and the enlargement of territory controlled by the Catholic Church, with the creation of new dioceses and their dependent areas. This required the construction of new buildings in urban areas which were otherwise fully involved in their own foundation or development processes. As for hospitals and schools, most initiatives concerned the public networks for such facilities; in buildings used for administrative purposes or basic municipal services, public initiative was dominant, via either central (government headquarters, agencies) or municipal (town hall buildings, markets) authorities. In this regard, there was a clear conflict between nostalgic and modernoriented architecture, eventually resolved by consolidation of the later; in the areas of transportation, communication and radio resulting from official and public initiative few traditionalist buildings resulted, given their specific nature and relationship to social dynamics and functional modernity; a number of buildings of exceptional size and quality were built in this field; private initiatives connected to the urban and cosmopolitan sphere, namely architecture for the hotel industry, show-business and the banking and commercial sectors, grew substantially during this phase and saw the emergence of truly exemplary buildings, with some very avant-garde or bold innovations in architectural design; finally, in public and private residential architecture for the distinct social classes of colonial society, ranging from projects targeting the middle and upper classes to social housing for the indigenous population, the period witnessed the appearance of projects ranging from the more traditional to bold modern buildings, i.e. from the so-called Casa Portuguesa (Portuguese house) and its various versions to collective housing units along the internationalist lines of Le Corbusier.

Religious architecture

In the area of religious construction, this phase also witnessed the building of major buildings with slight modernist or traditional appearances. Examples of this backward-looking trend include the following: in Angola, the Cathedral of Sá da Bandeira by Fernando Batalha (1939), although with some Art Deco styling; and in Mozambique, the Nampula Cathedral, attributed to Raul Lino (inaugurated in 1956). Both cathedrals feature the classical ‘Portuguese façade’ comprising two towers of a medieval sort arranged in an H-shape, and a long central nave. These major projects were copied in many smaller churches in minor cities and towns, with a more or less regionalist expression, among them the Church of Lobito by Vasco Regaleira. All extend the use of 19th century architectural models and practices, without being particularly imaginative or seeking innovation.

Some clearly modernist buildings are also noteworthy, along with others that showcase the transition from traditional to modern-oriented themes: the 1936-1944 Cathedral of Maputo by the engineer Marcial Freitas e Costa is an excellent example in this regard. A clearly more modernising model was used for Luanda’s Church of the Holy Family, by António de Sousa Mendes and Sabino Luís Martins (1964 competition). Significant modern works in the 1960s include the Church of Novo Redondo/Sumbe by Castro Rodrigues, inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Saint Peter’s Church in Moçâmedes by Luís Taquelim (b. 1928), with its expressive vertical triangular planes. The Chapel/Terrace of Our Lady of the Hill in Sá da Bandeira, by Frederico Ludovice (1919-2007), is a bold curvilinear open structure shaped like a musical bow (from 1962).

Mozambique was perhaps where this innovative and modern aspect of religious architecture became most evident. Noteworthy modern churches in the Maputo area include the one in Munhuana by Jorge Valente, with its oblique volume and dynamic expression; the one in Machava by Pancho Guedes; and especially the remarkable Saint Anthony’s Church in Polana by Craveiro Lopes (1956-1962), with its circular nave and elegant structural solution. Also noteworthy for its very original appearance is the very sculptural Church of Manga in Beira by João Garizo do Carmo (1957), as is the unusual Church of Macúti by Bernardino Ramalhete (1961), also in Beira, with its clear vernacular and functional style.

These churches, particularly those in Mozambique (Polana and Manga), seem directly influenced by the Brazilian modern architecture then at its height due to Niemeyer (b. 1907) and the new city of Brasília (inaugurated in 1960), which defended a plastic and almost sculptural approach to architecture. In this context, it is significant that several leading architects and artists from Mozambique took part in Brazil’s São Paulo Biennale in the 1950s. All modern church architecture was otherwise and generally associated to the trend initiated by progressive Catholics in mainland Portugal in the mid-1950s, as embodied by the Movement for the Renewal of Religious Art (MRAR – Movimento de Renovação da Arte Religiosa).

Hospitals, schools and research centres

Hospitals and schools were naturally well suited for the systematic construction of modernist and modern buildings. Their social, medical and educational scope meant that they provided important themes for the aforementioned professionals; they were otherwise essential aspects of the policy to ensure widespread provision of the respective facilities.

One key example in a smaller city is the Hospital of Sá da Bandeira by Pinto da Cunha and Simões de Carvalho (1963-1965), which effectively represents the modern style with its innovative lines, indicative of this function’s new typologies. In1958 the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Maputo was endowed with a new modern structure attributed to Luiz de Vasconcellos and Francisco Assis (cf. Ferreira, 2008); the Tuberculosis Hospital, on the outskirts of Machava, by João José Tinoco and Alberto Soeiro, comprises a large volume with a long rectangular façade that accentuates its horizontal lines.

Architecture for schools and research centres was also affected by the prevailing conservative ideologies. As in mainland Portugal (Gil Vicente High School in Lisbon, the Castelo Branco and Faro high schools), the colonial territories saw the construction of manor-like structures with neo-baroque decorative elements; the bodies sometimes used classical models for the façades, while contradictorily featuring a certain modernity due to the reinforced concrete structure and Bauhaus-like design of the various volumes and the coordination of respective functions. Examples are the high schools and/or technical schools in the colonial capitals of Praia in Cape Verde, São Tomé (Silva Cunha Technical School) and Luanda (Salvador Correia de Sá High School, precursor of the present day Mutu ya Kevela, 1940-1942), as well as in Benguela (Diogo Cão High School) and Sá da Bandeira (Diogo Cão, present day Mandume), among others.

The process of expressive modernisation was gradual. In Mozambique a sharp transition line remained, with the extended use of porticoed monumental façades at secondary schools in Maputo. Examples include the Salazar (now Josina Machel) High School (project 1939-1944, built in 1945-1952) by José Costa Silva, and the António Enes (now Francisco Manyanga) High School by Lucínio Cruz and Eurico Pinto Lopes, designed in 1958 and built in 1961-1962; in Beira, a similar case is the Pedro de Anaia High School (by the same authors). However and perhaps because vocational schools had less symbolic and social prestige than the high schools, the 1959-1963 Governador Joaquim Araújo (now Estrela Vermelha) Vocational School in Lourenço Marques (by Fernando Mesquita, 1959-1963) clearly expressed a sober and functional modernity.

On the contrary, in some sub-regional contexts (outlying areas where the traditionalist canon was more diluted when architects sought to produce innovative work) a number of clearly modern projects were built, exploring the use of exposed concrete and open ventilation and circulation systems suited for the tropics. Noteworthy in this regard are Angola’s 1958-1959 Henrique de Carvalho (Saurimo) High School in remote Lunda, by Francisco and Antonieta Silva Dias, a pavilion structure marked by ventilation grilles on the façades, as well as the one in Lobito by Castro Rodrigues (1966) built of exposed concrete.

Buildings linked to scientific research are generally modern works, given their specific purpose. Two such buildings are noteworthy: the Engineering Laboratory of Angola/LEA – by Vasco Vieira da Costa in Luanda, and the Cotton Institute of Mozambique – by João José Tinoco in Machava, near Lourenço Marques.

Administrative buildings and markets

Whether associated to local authorities or the state, administrative buildings played a key role in consolidating the so-called architecture of representation, first by intensly using classical and neo-traditional models, and later with typologies that asserted modernity.

The buildings designated as Government (or Governor’s) Palaces in Angola are usually included in the first group and feature a symmetrical composition, notable entrance and large roof. A neo-classical example is found in Vila Serpa Pinto/Menongue and another, a 1959 manor-like building, in Vila Luso/Luena. The buildings now housing the provincial governments of Namibe and Vila Pereira D’Eça/Ondjiva in Cunene (the latter dated 1969, was destroyed in the civil war) featured a clearly Modernist public building typology with a prismatic geometric body resting on pilotis.

But in Mozambique the best state-owned public buildings in small provincial cities were doubtless the Administrative Palaces (Palácios das Repartições) housing administrative departments, as in Porto Amélia/Pemba, Vila Cabral/Lichinga (by João José Tinoco, from 1961 to1968) and Quelimane (by João Garizo do Carmo). They consist of large, elegant and airy concrete structures with galleries and grilles marking the façades, and roofs with natural ventilation systems. These projects, especially the ones by Tinoco, show the influence of Brazilian modern architecture, as mentioned above with respect to religious architecture.

Buildings for municipal headquarters enabled experiments with modernist (Quelimane, along Art Deco lines) and then modern (Mocuba, in the Quelimane region) forms. Examples of the later in Angola include a building in Novo Redondo/Sumbe and another in Mariano Machado/Ganda, both by Castro Rodrigues, the project for Vila Luso/Luena, and another for Cabinda by Luís Garcia de Castilho. Buildings for public services underwent an identical stylistic evolution as exemplified by a modernist work, the Statistics building in Maputo, with its cylindrical corner body; another using Estado Novo architecture, Luanda’s Financial Office; and a clearly modern example, the building housing the Provincial Secretariat for Agriculture, Forests and Dependent Services, by João José Tinoco and António Matos Veloso (Lourenço Marques, 1967).

The municipal markets in major city centres were eminently functional and practical buildings that from an early date affirmed modern techniques and styles in their designs. During the period here considered, Angola’s modern markets are particularly noteworthy, with innovative examples such as the following: in Luanda, the Quinaxixe Market (1950-1953, by Vasco Vieira da Costa, demolished in 2008), and those in Benguela and Lobito (the later by Castro Rodrigues, 1963). Also significant is Luanda’s Caputo Market by Simões de Carvalho (1962), featuring light and elegant exposed concrete open roofs, built in a busy neighbourhood. In tropical cities fresh produce markets are naturally buildings whose functional needs exceed all other aspects; the grandeur and aesthetics of typological examples like Quinaxixe had no comparison in mainland Portugal during the same period.

Transportation, communications

Architecture associated to transportation systems was highly developed in the colonial territories due to the growth of building activity. In addition to various aforementioned infrastructure projects, there are a number of noteworthy more urban buildings. Some are modernist, such as the Benguela Railway Station in Lobito by Cassiano Branco (1936), while others assert an eye-catching modern appearance, such as the Beira Railway Station by Francisco de Castro, Paulo Sampaio and João Afonso Garizo do Carmo (1958-1966); in size and innovative boldness they could compete with any similar works built in mainland Portugal. Good examples of Modernist architecture for maritime communications are the Navy Command buildings in Luanda by António Campino (1917-1997) and in Mindelo, Cape Verde, by Lucínio Cruz (1914-1999).

A great deal of architecture was associated to radio activities, resulting from the fast paced and growing importance of that innovative field throughout the 20th century. Post office, telegraph, telephone and radio broadcasting buildings were found in virtually all settlements, towns and cities, and decisively marked the colonial architecture of Angola and Mozambique, becoming landmarks in the respective urban centres. Examples include the modernist Post Office and Telephones building in Maputo, with its dynamic curving corner, and the Post Office in Benguela, a modern design by Lucínio Cruz (1950). Noteworthy buildings associated to radio broadcasting are the monumental Mozambique Radio Club in Maputo, with its imposing grille system on the broad façades and the symbolic tower (by Paolo Gadini, 1940s-1950s, built c. 1948), and the large complex housing Angola Broadcasting clearly in a modern layout (by Pinto da Cunha and Simões de Carvalho, 1963-1967 – now the National Radio), with its extensive structural system marked by courtyards and façades with grilles – yet another project whose technical effectiveness and scale could not be compared to anything then being done in Portugal. Also worth mentioning as the most interesting work in São Tomé is the elegant building housing the Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações (Telecommunications Company), which also has a large abstract concrete façade grille.

Cinemas, hotels and clubs

Architecture for performance venues had a special place during the ‘cinema century’, i.e. the 20th century. As in Europe, in tropical African cities it evolved considerably, with the notable presence of cinemas configured as open-air terraces and, as in Portugal, frequent use of the mixed cinema/theatre model. A good example of a modernist building is the Cine África (formerly Manuel Rodrigues) in Maputo, with its central tower. Another is the Cine-Theatre Monumental in Benguela, a large building close to the Estado Novo architecture aesthetic, by Fernando Batalha (1952). But the most remarkable work in this typology is the former Restauração Cinema (built between 1946 and 1951 – now the Parliament) in Luanda by João Garcia de Castilho and Luís Garcia de Castilho, with a thin abstract tower above a long compact horizontal body.

Open-air cinemas soon appeared in the major Angolan cities. The most notable are the Miramar (by the Castilho brothers, 1964), on a panoramic slope overlooking Luanda Bay, and the Flamingo, on a sandy site in Lobito (by Castro Rodrigues, 1963). In Mozambique, movie theatres likewise played their worldly role, exhibiting a certain degree of luxury and high quality materials and ambiences. Examples include the Dicca Cinema in Maputo by João José Tinoco (1967-1969) and the São Jorge Cinema in Beira by João Garizo do Carmo (1953), with its large grille on a curvilinear façade.

Hotels were an essential theme in the modernisation of urban systems during this phase. Like cinemas, hotels played an active role in redefining a modern idea of comfort in the main colonial cities and towns. Notable examples from the modernist period are the Hotel Girassol in Maputo, with its original and emblematic cylindrical form, and the spectacular though short-lived Grande Hotel in Beira (1940- -1955) by José Porto, completed by Francisco de Castro. The 1950s witnessed the construction of modern-looking hotels in the main Mozambican urban centres. In Beira, an example is the Embaixador Hotel by Francisco de Castro (1956- 1957); in Maputo, the polychrome Tamariz Hotel by Pancho Guedes (1954). In Angola, the urban panorama was also marked by a number of high quality examples, among them the Presidente Hotel in Luanda by António Campino (late 1960s), whose theme the designer researched on an international scale, and the Mombaka Hotel in Benguela (unknown author) and the Luso Hotel in Vila Luso/Luena by Luís Taquelim da Silva, an example of a modern hotel in a small town.

Private clubs and associations also played a key role in the daily life of the more urban colonial classes. Their buildings/head offices attempted to architecturally highlight the status of the respective social groups. Examples are the Associação dos Naturais de Angola (Anangola) (Angola Born Citizens Association) in Luanda by Vasco Vieira da Costa and, in Mozambique, the headquarters of the Automóvel Touring Clube da Beira (Car Touring Club of Beira) (1957), by Paulo Sampaio.

Commercial and bank buildings

Commercial spaces in modernist buildings had since the 1930s-1940s helped define an innovative and appealing environment in various colonial cities. They were associated to the emblematic urban comfort facilities represented by cinemas, hotels and clubs, and introduced and/or broadened the opportunities to consume new imported and local products amid a more sophisticated urban life, while also fostering social relationships and the moulding of a rising colonial middle class. One modernist example is the Coimbra House building in downtown Maputo. In Luanda, an early modern example from the 1950s is the Mobil/Carvalho e Freitas building on Largo da Mutamba by João Garcia de Castilho with Alberto Pessoa; it boasted the characteristic Le Corbusier façade grilles for ventilation/lighting and housed businesses, offices and a hotel, thus publicising the new internationalist style applied in urban commercial typologies. A typical 1960s work in Luanda is the large Coqueiros building built for the railways near the Municipal Stadium, also by João Garcia de Castilho (1969-1970). Many other commercial buildings built in Angola during these decades, corresponding to the economic cycles driving prosperity based on coffee, oil and diamonds, and to those deriving from the colonial war. Notable examples in Luanda directly linked to production cycles from the 1950s to the 1970s include the following: the Cirilo & Irmão building by Francisco Pereira da Costa (1923-1976) and Pinto da Cunha (from 1958), for a businessman with ties to the coffee industry, and the various commercial buildings by Vasco Vieira da Costa, among them the tower of the 1968-1969 Mutamba building (now the Ministry of Housing and Public Works) and the SECIL tower on the Coastal Avenue.

In Maputo, the 1950s-1970s phase also witnessed the construction of large buildings in the city centre. Examples include the innovative Abreu, Santos e Rocha building by Pancho Guedes (1954-1956), with its sculptural grilles and façades; and the TAP/Montepio of Mozambique Building by Alberto Soeiro (1960). One way or another, these buildings developed the dynamics of horizontal lines, with recourse to collective galleries – an eminently modern architectural feature of tall buildings. Also noteworthy due to their fame and construction quality are the Montegiro building in Quelimane by Arménio Losa and Cassiano Barbosa (architects from Porto), conceived as a residential, tourist and industrial complex (1954), and the Nauticus (Hotel Portugal) in Nampula, by Pancho Guedes. Banks represent a distinct variant of commercial buildings and were emblematically present in the major colonial urban centres, with a view to enhancing their prestige. Besides the respective architectural project, they were often associated to the placement of artwork in public areas. The 1950s were marked by official investment linked to state banks (Bank of Angola, in Angola and Bank Nacional Ultramarino in the other Portuguese overseas territories), which tended favour the neo-traditional classical or baroque imagery prevalent at the time. In the 1960s architectural designs became openly modern, while the 1970s saw the emergence of private banks, with the iconic tower considered an object of architectural prestige above all others. Three examples, from each of the above phases, are worth mentioning: the Bank of Angola in Luanda (c. 1953-1956) by Vasco Regaleira, a classical neo-baroque revival; the Bank Nacional Ultramarino in Maputo by José Gomes Bastos, with a clearly modern and luxurious appearance (finished in 1965); and the BCCI Tower by João José Tinoco in the centre of Maputo, a Brutalist building in exposed concrete (finished after 1975). Other examples include the various bank branches using the ground floor commercial format, such as those in Mozambique where João José Tinoco worked (Bank Pinto & Sotto Mayor branches in Malhangalene, Matola, Machava and Maputo), and others in Inhambane and Nampula. These projects often had very high quality interior design and decoration. Some private banks also introduced the use of simple and innovative modern public interior spaces in small colonial town centres, thereby helping publicise and popularise contemporary forms.

Residential architecture

The quarters of detached houses (collective social housing and cooperative and private communities for the lower and middle classes), played an extremely significant and important role in all the Portuguese colonies. The construction of detached houses of high architectural quality in the richer quarters of the main cities in turn reflected the assertive ostentatious lifestyle of the wealthiest colonos.

An example of Salazar-era public initiatives is the construction of low-income or social quarters (bairros económicos/sociais in the language of the Estado Novo). In the 1940s and 1950s groups of small single-family and/or adjacent homes built in the neo-regional ‘Portuguese house’ style were often built for this purpose, as in the former Craveiro Lopes Quarter in Praia, Cape Verde and the former Salazar Quarter (now 3 de Fevereiro) in São Tomé.

Due to the modernisation of architectural models in the 1950s and 1960s the collective housing types built by colonial administrations evolved into groups of adjacent tall buildings or sequential blocks with several homes on each floor. One good example is a housing block for state employees by Vasco Vieira da Costa on Luanda’s Lisboa Avenue/Revolução Avenue (c. 1965), consisting of several modules arranged in tiers on a slope. Other noteworthy examples include the PRECOL/Unidade de Vizinhança no. 1 collective housing blocks by Simões de Carvalho and Pinto da Cunha (1963-1965) in the Prenda Quarter, otherwise known as the Musseque Prenda, a complex built on a site planned by the municipality of Luanda according to the rules of modern European urbanism, here innovatively and experimentally applied (with triplexes) in an African context.

Many of the colonies’ finest architects were involved in designing and building assertively modern high-standard residences. Some built their own homes according to this typology or designed homes for leading professionals and colonial officials. Examples are the Casa Inglesa (English House) by Vasco Vieira da Costa, built on a prominent elevation in Luanda uptown area, and the house Simões de Carvalho built for his own use in Prenda (1966), both in the Angolan capital. In Mozambique several residences with original sculptural forms were built by Pancho Guedes in the elegant Polana Quarter of Maputo; another example is his neo-vernacular Casa Vermelha (Red House, 1967-1970) in the Sommerchield Quarter. Examples of large-scale collective housing in that city are the COOP Quarter by Jorge Valente (1960s) and the Torres Vermelhas (Red Towers) by Carlos Veiga Pinto Camelo (from 1970-1974).

Contemporary situation

What heritage of Portuguese origin or influence remains for the future?

In a final synthesis, the landscape aspect of most urban spaces built by the Portuguese or with their participation or influence must also be highlighted. The city-landscape theme (city built in conjunction and harmony with its location and surrounding area) undertaken with a keen perception of geographical, functional and symbolical values often resulted in groups of buildings manifesting clearly aesthetic concerns, regardless of whether this was an option and/or intention of the respective builders.

Each city, town, settlement, fortress, trading post or village built in those particular places, generally includes, as a rule, a number of singular buildings notable for their construction or stylistic value, vernacular expression or corresponding historical significance, as it is stated through the surviving examples.

What remains of this urban and architectural legacy also indicates a tendency to build works that embody (sometimes in a single building) the various cultural and artistic influences on Portuguese culture over the centuries in the regions in question. One way or another, they contextualised and furthered dialogue between the great world civilisations represented by the Euro-American West – commercial, pre-industrial and industrial – and the Middle East and Far East, and their mixing with African, oriental and Islamic cultures.

In this regard, the following particularly representative examples of heritage of Portuguese origin in sub-Saharan Africa are noteworthy: Cidade Velha of Ribeira Grande, on Santiago Island in Cape Verde, a ruined complex comprising the first European-African urban experience in the tropics, which may be considered a valuable albeit much deteriorated remnant of a micro-city characteristic of the first era of Portuguese colonisation. It is nowadays an urban ruin, whose few residents have ruralised the spaces of the onetime city. Most of them live in small houses with thatched roofs, though some more modern ones have tile or slate roofs. Several of its monuments have been restored since the 1960s (Saint Philip’s Fort, Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Pillory, by Luís Benavente of the DGEMN – Direcção-Geral de Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (Directorate-General of Buildings and Monuments). The construction and consolidation work started during the 1990s including a new guesthouse by Siza Vieira (2004) and archaeological research in the cathedral ruins carried out by the Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico (Portuguese Institute for Architectural Heritage). The site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in June 2009.

The plantations (roças) on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe comprise a notable architectural example of colonial agriculture organised in small autonomous properties suitable for the equatorial environment, using the best available industrial construction. In São Tomé and Príncipe, the islands’ two small cities are not the only emblematic sites, for those various rural agro-industrial complexes are also quite remarkable and attest to intense exploitation of raw materials during a short time period, with a broad range of small settlements of major urban, territorial and architectural interest.

In Angola, noteworthy in the modern era (16th-18th centuries) are the city of São Paulo de Luanda, a true Lisbon of southern Africa, as well as the Kwanza fortresses and the singular Pombaline iron factory in Nova Oeiras.

Notable examples of urban centres in the new African nations established in the 19th and the 20th centuries, especially due to their numerous examples of architecture, infrastructures and high-quality modern constructions, include Lourenço Marques/Maputo and Beira in Mozambique, and Lobito, Moçâmedes/Namibe and Lubango/Sá da Bandeira in Angola.

Finally, in East Africa the ruined historical buildings of Portuguese origin built for military purposes in coastal, insular or inland areas of northern Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia must not be forgotten. They include Fort Jesus in Mombasa, whose walls were subject to two interventions (1958 and 2001) by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the marker in Melinde/Malindi attesting to Vasco da Gama’s long voyage in 1498 and early European contacts with the Orient.

The above mentioned sites, buildings and monuments well deserve their place side by side with the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites: the Goreia/Gorée islands in Senegal, linked to the slave trade and successively captured by the Dutch, English and French (World Heritage list in 1978); James Island, including the districts of Lower Niumi and Upper Niumi and the Municipality of Banjul on the Gambia River in the Gambia, which besides the fort built in 1827 by the English to control the entry and exit of slave ships encompasses the ruins of a trading post and chapel from the Portuguese period as well as 19th century buildings left by French traders (World Heritage list in 2003); the Fortress of Elmina, along with the forts and castles of the Volta region in the greater Accra area, and the trading posts between Keta and Beyin in Ghana, also associated to slavery (World Heritage list in 1979); the Island of Mozambique, with its ancient buildings, as described in the correspondent insert in this volume (World Heritage list in 1991); the ruins of entrepots on the small islands of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara in the Lindi region of Tanzania, for centuries an outlet for the gold, iron, slave and ivory trades (World Heritage list in 1981); and finally, Gondar in Ethiopia, with its city-fortress of Fasil Ghebbi, residence of the Ethiopian emperor and its buildings with Hindu, Arab and Portuguese influences, together with the churches founded by Jesuit missionaries (World Heritage list in 1979).

This group of sites, buildings and monuments is truly representative of the Portu- guese legacy in Africa, yet one might also assert that they were mainly built to further commercial activities based on the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources, especially the slave trade. That judgment is however unjustified, for the African construction legacy of Portuguese origin represents much, much more. It was indeed strongly driven by economic interests, like all human activity and all European colonialism, yet it also resulted in fertile artistic and intellectual exchanges, a sharing of ideas and beliefs, without which African civilisa- tion would certainly be poorer. The inventory presented herein is meant to demonstrate the variety, abundance and artistic and technical value of many of the respective accomplishments. While bearing in mind what they doubtless represented vis-à-vis political propaganda and economic exploitation, it is hoped that this inventory will also help preserve the memory of their positive aspects, past and present, for the benefit of modern-day Africans and for humanity in general.

José Manuel Fernandes

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