http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1032 Ilha de Mocambique is a former Portuguese trading-post on the route to India. The island was a major Arab port and boatbuilding centre long before Vasco da Gama visited in 1498. The Portuguese established a port and naval base as early as 1507, while the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522, is considered the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere.
Reviews
Llewellyn Jones (South Africa):
The Lonely Planet says the Ilha de Moçambique (Mozambique Island) is one of the country’s most fascinating destinations. It describes the Island’s architectural charms and social heritage – dating back many centuries before European colonisation – in the most alluring terms. It says the Island is between 200m and 500m wide and about 3km long. I have read the descriptions and suggestions for things to do on the Island many times over, but absolutely nowhere does it mention the fact that the Island has 14 000 inhabitants, half of whom crap on the beach on a daily basis. When an Islander says:- “I’m just going to the bog,” he, or she means that they are actually going to take a lazy stroll down to the beach and, depending on the urgency, possibly dig a little hole in the soft, golden sand and take a crap. Afterwards, depending on how well bred he or she is, they will step into the warm, tropical bidet to clean off. Then it’s just a matter of zipping up, tucking in and making themselves generally presentable, maybe nodding a greeting to a neighbour who hasn’t noticed the tide coming in, before strolling back to hearth and home relieved, refreshed and happy.
It even seems like a bit of a social event sometimes. You can see them lining up in the late afternoon, five or six squatting in a row, hotly debating where the fish are biting best as you stroll along the beachside boulevard trying to ignore the fact that there is a group of men, or women – never men and women together – taking a communal crap just yards to your right.
Without actually mentioning the crap, the Lonely Planet says an effort is being made to clean up the beaches, and that holidaymakers can swim at the beaches on either side of the 16th century fort at the north-eastern tip of the island. The guide goes on to warn would-be swimmers not to venture away from these two beaches as strong tides make it dangerous to swim around the northern and southern ends of the island.
Strong tides. That’s it. Nothing else! No mention of turds bobbing up and down on a gentle tropical swell. Maybe it’s just me, but I would have thought that the possibility of catching a dose of dysentery or ecoli poisoning merely by taking a refreshing dip in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, would have been a far more compelling and appropriate warning.
When my wife and I were discussing possible destinations for a romantic island vacation over New Year, I might have said something like: “While it may appeal to my sense of adventure, swimming around in ocean of shit, beating off flies, doesn’t really appeal to my sense of romance and relaxation. Maybe we should look for another option.” I certainly wouldn’t have booked a ten-day vacation on the island.
RESISTINDO À CORROSÃO DO TEMPO
É noite na ilha. Mal desponta, no céu, uma claridade tímida que deixa adivinhar o volume impressivo das muralhas do Forte de S. Sebastião, mas não as raízes vorazes que as estrangulam com uma paciência de séculos. À volta do forte apenas se ouve o ténue murmúrio das ondas apaziguadas sobre a areia, enquanto uma brisa cálida vem soprando, hesitante, do coração do Índico, acariciando os restos da pérgula que espera os prometidos dias de restauro.
Mulher com máscara musiro na Ilha de Moçambique
Mulher com máscara musiro na ilha de Moçambique
Ao bonançoso recanto, e à linha litorânea que se prolonga em jeito de fazer uma meia-lua, se deu o maior crédito, cinco séculos atrás, por plurais razões. “A pequena e quase insignificante Ilha de Moçambique seria de muito pouca, ou de nenhuma importância (...) se não fosse enriquecida duma espaçosa enseada e um porto, que é, sem contradição, o melhor, o mais seguro e mais cómodo, que se acha em toda esta dilatada costa”, cronicou Frei Bartolomeu dos Mártires, logo acrescentando que “os navios são obrigados a passar muito perto, e quase junto à fortaleza de S. Sebastião, que pela sua bem escolhida posição local na entrada, e boca do porto, o põem a coberto de qualquer insulto hostil”.
O valor estratégico daquelas paragens foi intuído pelos navegadores portugueses, que por ali se quedaram algumas semanas, esperando melhores ventos para prosseguir viagem. A ilha tornar-se-ia, a partir de então, escala obrigatória para a famosa carreira das Índias, “a maior e a mais árdua de todas as que se conhecem no mundo”, tal como a definia C. R. Boxer, estudioso do colonialismo português. A estância representava, sobretudo, um compasso de espera imprescindível para lidar com o regime das monções, trazendo os cascos das naus que entravam no porto memória de todas as águas do Índico. “A qual povoação de Moçambique tomou tanta posse de nós, que em nome é hoje a mais nomeada escala de todo o mundo, e por frequentação a maior que têm os Portugueses”, escrevia João de Barros em 1552. E também Camões, que na ilha viveu, provavelmente entre 1567 e 1569, se refere a tão importante préstimo: “Esta ilha pequena, que habitamos, / É em toda esta terra certa escala / De todos os que as ondas navegamos...”.
UM SINCRETISMO DE SÉCULOS
Álvaro Velho o conta: as coisas não foram fáceis para os recém-chegados. Os árabes já por ali andavam há muito, descendo a costa africana desde a Arábia e dando fundação a numerosas feitorias. Na narrativa de Álvaro Velho sobre os primeiros encontros das naus de Vasco da Gama com as populações locais dá-se bem conta da riqueza do comércio local: “E, nas almadias, achámos muitos panos de algodão, finos; e ceiras de palma; e uma talha, vidrada, de manteiga; e redomas de vidraça, com águas; e livros, de sua lei; e um cofre, com meadas de algodão”.
Palácio de São Paulo e estátua de Vasco da Gama na ilha de Moçambique
Palácio de São Paulo e estátua de Vasco da Gama na ilha de Moçambique
Na primordial troca de palavras, para se saber quem estava e ao que iam os que chegavam, o interlocutor local era um natural do reino de Fez, o que revela a variedade de gentes, predicado da terra. E bárbaros não eram, certamente, a avaliar pelos registos do diário de Vasco da Gama: “Os homens desta terra (...) falam como mouros; e as suas vestiduras são de panos de linho e de algodão, muito delgados, e de muitas cores, de listras, e são ricos e lavrados. E todos trazem toucas na cabeça, com vivos de seda lavrados com fio de oiro”. O capitão da nau S. Gabriel pôde constatar logo ali a dimensão do comércio que os antecedia, espelhada na carga dos quatro navios árabes ancorados: oiro, prata, tecidos, cravo, pimenta, gengibre, pérolas e outras pedras preciosas”. A descrição de um missionário da Companhia de Jesus, lavrada um pouco mais tarde é, também, capital, para descortinar o panorama social do sítio: “A maior dificuldade é dar notícia desta gente, assim no número como na qualidade, que habita esta ilha, porque quando íamos desembarcando, vi tanta diversidade nas praias (...), tanta diversidade nas modas...”.
E a todo esse mosaico de gentes e feições de viver se acrescentou a contribuição portuguesa, que levou a ilha a um apogeu de prosperidade, dela fazendo ponto de partida para a exploração do Monomotapa, elegendo-a entreposto para o comércio de panos, missangas, ouro, escravos, marfim e pau-preto, para a deixar cair, depois, em cintilante decadência que guarda múltiplos sinais de uma síntese que resiste à corrosão do tempo. Essa contribuição representa, no dizer de Alexandre Lobato, historiador e afeiçoado da ilha, a contracorrente de uma visão nacionalista e epopeica da aventura expansionista, um “sincretismo de séculos, feito com as vidas dos simples, dos comuns, dos idealistas, e também com as dos vagabundos, dos miseráveis, dos aventureiros e dos náufragos, que com os mercadores ricos de roubos, os clérigos sátrapas de pecados e os nobres déspotas de poder, andaram a espalhar Portugal por toda a parte e de qualquer maneira, amando, servindo, sofrendo, guerreando e roubando - ladrões de almas, ladrões no mar, ladrões na terra - homens, afinal, todos”.
A CAPELA SOLITÁRIA DA ILHA DE MOÇAMBIQUE
Ao amanhecer, solta-se dos rochedos, nos flancos da fortaleza, uma frágil e esguia canoa que se atira em direcção à rosácea luz do oriente, que se ergue para lá da Ilha de Goa. O pescador acena de longe, porventura estranhando o viajante que madruga. As muralhas vão ganhando figura e cor com a aurora, e com elas a capela de Nossa Senhora do Baluarte, exemplar celebração do manuelino em terra moçambicana.
Feitoria, ilha de Moçambique
Feitoria, ilha de Moçambique
É um templo quase secreto, que os versos de Rui Knopfli evocam em apurada filigrana: “Erecta e incólume ao desafio áspero do vento e da areia, / de tudo e todos oculta, menos do mar, breve / milagre alvinitente à flor da rocha em espuma, / se te fita, o sol deslumbra e resvala pelas linhas / puríssimas do teu rosto...”. Erguida sobre um baluarte solitário uma vintena de anos depois da primeira passagem das naus (a fortaleza só seria construída quarenta anos mais tarde), a capela devia assemelhar-se a uma sentinela audaciosa e parecer um insolente desafio aos olhos dos árabes. Foi a primeira de uma série de edificações que fazem hoje parte de um núcleo classificado pela UNESCO como Património da Humanidade e que têm vindo a ser objecto de restauro.
Tudo quanto fica aqui escrito é acanhado face ao lugar, e tem o gosto, como disse Luís Carlos Patraquim, outro poeta moçambicano tomado pelo feitiço da Ilha, de um “acidulado último gomo das retóricas inúteis”. Limitado o verbo, por natureza, para certos cometimentos, é preciso lá ir, senti-la e mergulhar na sua carne intemporal. Porque, sobretudo, “... não é da Europa que se vê a dimensão humana e histórica do Portugal que sempre emigrou, pela miséria do Reino e as extorsões dos grandes, tendo como objectivo as miragens ultramarinas como remédios mágicos, a procurar nas Áfricas, nas Índias, nos Brasis”. Palavras de Alexandre Lobato no prefácio a A Ilha de Próspero, belíssimo livro de fotografias e versos de Rui Knopfli sobre a ilha que deu nome a um país.
DUM TEMPO ANTIGO QUE AQUI FICOU
Vale a pena fazer o périplo da ilha a pé, começando na ponta onde estão o forte e a antiga pousada, convertida em hotel de estrelas. Nos últimos anos tem sido restaurado algum do património edificado da ilha, quer por iniciativa de particulares, que projectam novos alojamentos a pensar no desenvolvimento do turismo cultural, quer da cooperação europeia, quer, ainda, da Diocese de Nacala.
Recolhendo as redes de pesca
Recolhendo as redes de pesca
É na chamada cidade de pedra, cujo traçado tomou forma no final do século XVIII e no princípio do século XIX, que encontramos algumas das construções mais emblemáticas do tempo da ocupação portuguesa, como a Igreja da Misericórdia (séc. XVI) a antiga Alfândega (séc. XVIII) e o Palácio de São Paulo, uma ampliação do antigo Colégio de S. Francisco Xavier, que acolhe um espantoso acervo de arte indo-portuguesa. O baldaquim da capela ostenta uma mescla de barroco e de elementos de arte oriental. Na área localizada entre Rua do Arco e a Igreja da Misericórdia podemos observar significativos exemplos de arquitectura colonial: casas térreas, sobrados e alguns palácios ou feitorias.
No outro extremo da baía virada a este está a Igreja de Santo António, de raiz quinhentista, reconstruída a partir da antiga capela do fortim. Também a Capela de S. Francisco Xavier, perto da ponte que faz a ligação ao continente, tem o rosto renovado, assim como a Capela de Nossa Senhora do Baluarte, restaurada já há alguns anos pela Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Quase metade da ilha ocupa essa cidade em pedra erguida, “de casas brancas dum branco rosa / dum tempo antigo que aqui ficou” (Alberto de Lacerda, poeta ilhéu), cidade de sombras que parecem durar há séculos, reservada e indiferente à vertigem do mundo. Será, talvez, como a viu Knopfli: “Não vem sequer / da tua voz a opressão que cerra / as almas de quantos de ti / se acercam. Não demonstras, / não afirmas, não impões. / Elusiva e discretamente altiva / fala por ti apenas o tempo”.
Tiny, crescent-shaped Mozambique Island has played a larger-than-life role in East African coastal life over the centuries. Today, it is an intriguing anomaly - part ghost town and part lively fishing community. It's picturesque and pleasant to wander around, with colonnaded archways and stately colonial-era buildings lining the quiet, cobbled streets.
In Makuti Town, with its thatched-roof huts and crush of people, narrow alleyways echo with the sounds of playing children and squawking chickens, while fishermen sit on the sand repairing their long, brightly-coloured nets.
The waterfront in between, along the island's eastern edge, is known as the contracosta.]]> en-us Gallery 2 RSS Module, version 1.1.0 Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:44:57 +0200 120 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1036 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1032 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1129 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1129
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Ilha de Moçambique, Island of Mozambique, Luís Vaz de Camões
The Statue of Luiz de Camoes
Luís (Vaz) de Camões (1524 - 1580) was Portugal's great national poet, author of the epic poem Os Lusíadas (1572), which describes Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India. The statue was errected couple of years ago and faces the Indian ocean on the eastern side of the island. Just in front of Casa Branca guesthouse.
Camões and Ilha de Mozambique
Statue of Camões on the Ilha de Mozambique
Camões has visited twice Ilha de Mozambique between 1567 - 1569. The Island for him was a place of misery and parasitic friends, an occasional chance to do some work on Os Lusíadas, more concentrated work on his Parnassus, which, according to Couto, was later lost. His life was filled with the erratic wandering of someone forced to wait for a ride back home. It was a life of inner and outward misery, lacking in the most basic necessities, with increasing and irreversible degradation. Nonetheless, there was the never-ending «festival of light».
The texts do not reflect the spellbinding qualities. Instead, they leave us with the feeling that the limited life there tied the poet to the hellish circle of petty survival mechanisms, which robbed him of all pleasure and took away his energy from other things.
This was the reality of the Island of Mozambique to Camões between 1567 and 1569. He is, like all of us, heart-breakingly human, repeating the age-old gestures of the destitute, reduced to animal needs, transformed into a parasite, somehow made brutish, but with one major difference: Camões was able to block out the blinding sun of the island, because there is another light illuminating the texts he left us, thus increasing our cultural heritage. Increasing - and that is what poets do for a living. They increase and enrich the heritage, even when they are sometimes trapped in the middle of a sun-soaked sea - which they turn their backs on, creating a myth (an Island) which others will praise. The island which Camões never saw is today a mythical legacy which he handed down to us without ever knowing he did so.]]> photo Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:04:03 +0200 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1125 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1125
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Chappel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte , A.D. 1522
The Chappel of Nossa senhora de Baluarte (Capela de Nossa Senhora do Baluarte in portuguese) was build in 1522 and is considered as the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere. The chappel is situated at the northernmost point of the island, where Vasco da Gamma built the first artillery bastion during his first journey to India to defend the island against the Arabs.
The chappel is build in the Manuelino architecture, a building style during the late Portuguese Middle Ages. There are several plaques of people who have died on the island. There is also a wooden box with the human bones in the side room. They're told to be of the Capitain of the Fort...
To get to the chappel, ask the guide who takes you around the fort to open you the backdoor with the huge, old key.
You can also walk around the fort at low tide. The views are superb, but pay attention to the incoming tide.

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Na Fortaleza esta a funcionar uma escola.
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Mozambique : Rehabilitation Project of the San Sebastian Fortress, Island of Mozambique

Categories: Restoration
View of the San Sebastian Fortress UNESCO and the Government of Mozambique signed an agreement, in 2003, for the rehabilitation of one of the most important monuments on the Island of Mozambique, a site inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991 - the San Sebastian Fortress.
Built in the 16th century by the Portuguese colonial rulers, the Fortress is one of the oldest and in its massive and sober military architecture one of the most impressive monuments of the Island. It bears witness to the island's early obtained function as a major Portuguese trading port on the sea route to India for spices and ivory at first, and later for slave trade as of the second half of the 18th century. Its defensive forms are greatly inspired by Italian Renaissance military architecture and have basically remained unchanged ever since as evidenced by the comparison with old illustrations and drawings. The original building materials are characteristic for the region and its natural resources and the intricate system of rain water collection answers ably to the island's scarcity of freshwater.
Since gaining independence in 1975, the economic stagnation of the Island of Mozambique became severe and the historical building masses, including the Fortress of San Sebastian, have suffered serious decay in the following decades.
For this reason, immediate action is compulsory in order to prevent the building complex from further deterioration. The duration of rehabilitation works is limited to two years and divided into two phases. A first remedial action will concentrate on prevention from further deterioration. In a second step the building complex will be restored and furthermore equipped with a minimum of facilities for its yet unspecified new functions in the future. The conservational know-how obtained during the project may help accomplish further rehabilitation works on the island in the future. For this purpose a manual shall be produced.
The project execution involves a multidisciplinary team of professionals comprising of conservators, architects, historians, archivists and archaeologists, artisans and others. The rehabilitation work will be done by a construction company specialized in Architectural Heritage Restoration, and contracted through an international bid. An architectural and engineering company will therefore be required to produce all the technical documents (execution drawings, technical specifications, bill of quantities, etc.) necessary for the publication of the tender for the rehabilitation work. In any case, a maximum involvement of the local community in the project is an underlying principle and binding guideline for the execution of the rehabilitation works.
UNESCO will coordinate the rehabilitation project technically and administratively as part of its international mandate to ensure effective preservation and management of World Heritage Sites and in line with its decision to commence historic preservation works on the San Sebastian Fortress, without further delay. The project is funded by Japan through the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, the Union of Lusophone Capital Cities (UCCLA) and Portugal through IPAD (Portuguese Institute for Aid and Development).]]> photo Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:37:24 +0200 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1087 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1087
Fort San Sebastiao
Construction of the fort (Fortaleza Sao Sebastiao) began in 1558. The building was finally completed 62 years later, in 1620 after it was interrupted by several Dutch attacks in 1607 and 1608. The fort was heavily guarded by a large number of canons and withstood attacks from Omani Arabs in 1670, English in 18th century and French in begining of 19th century. Some of the canons are still in place and date from 1823 and 1824.
There is also another church inside the fort, old hospital and underground drinking water cistern, which was until recently the only public resource of drinking water on the island.
The fort is open every day and local students will guide you through the fort. There's no entry, but you should pay the guide around 1U$.
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Governor's Palace and Maritime Museum

The imposing red building on the main square is the former governor's palace (Palacio de Sao Paulo). Built in 1674 as a jesuit convent in replacement of the Jesuit monastery, which was destroyed by Omani Arabs in 1670. The convent was modified into governor's palace in 1759, when the Jesuit were banned from Portugal and its colonies. The building served as governor (of Mozambique) palace until 1898, later as the residence of district governor and at the end as the oversees residence for Poruguese President and ministers.

The palace is today converted into museum displaying the furniture from Goa and India, ecquisite carpets, chinese porcelian, paintings and other pieces from the colonial period.

There is also a Maritime Museum in the basement with numerous exhibits from the boats which frequented the island including the small wooden boat from on of the Vasca da Gamma's vessels.

The museum a must for every island visitor. It's open from 8 am to noon and 2pm to 5 pm. Entry is free, but a donation or small tip for the guide is expected.]]> photo Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:26:45 +0200 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1073 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1073
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Mesquita Ilha de Moçambique]]> photo Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:19:29 +0200 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1336 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1336
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Mosque and Sea Food Market

The elegant, green coloured Mosque, which is overlooking the island's market is a tangible testimony of the growing presence of islamic community on the island. The Omani Arab traders have been present already in the 10th century on the island, runing commerce with local Bantu tribes. With the arrival of Vasco da Gamma, Portuguese took over the island and the influence of islam vanished until the Mozambique's independance.

The present mosque was build a century ago. You can visit it except during prayer times. The view from the minaret over the stone town's roofs is exceptional.

Farmers and fishemen offer a variety of local fruits and sea food on the busy market in front of the mosque. Best time to go is in the eary morning, when the dhows arrives from the mainland to bring the marchandise.]]> photo Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:18:03 +0200 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1047 http://maputo.visitusinmaputo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1047
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Church of Health
Diagonally across from the hospital, is the Church of Health (Igreja de Nostra Senhora da Saude). This catholic church was build in the middle of 16th century. It was resored in 1996.
Ilha de Mo]]> photo Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:27:38 +0100