Platô

History

Early in the 16th century, the low lying areas were forested with kapok trees, they were cut down to make room for farming and agriculture, the forest stretched up to Ribeira Grande. Later some portions of the forest were restored mainly with palm in the 18th century and the remainder restored with kapok trees and intermingled with buildings and landmarks built in the 1930s and the mid 20th century, a dense palm grove as they were in the mid-20th century no longer exist.

The plateau was raided during the Capture of Santiago in 1585, when Habsburg ruled Portugal was at war with England in which Carleill arrived on an expedition, Drake followed the next morning. The 1,000 or so inhabitants fled to safety, leaving Drake in control of the town who ordered it to be razed to the ground, sparing only the town hospital, but the plunder was scarce, afterwards, he left to raid Cidade Velha.

The Cassard expedition, led by Jacques Cassard took place in 1712 in Cidade Velha, it was part of the Spanish War of Succession in which Portugal sided with the Habsburgs, it was not mainly a battle but a raid, it led the capital to be moved to this spot, the then colonial capital would be partly moved in 1712 and fully moved in 1770, since 1975, it is the capital of Cape Verde. For the protection of the city from further pirate raids, cannons once installed in the northeastern portion next to today's Liceu Domingos Ramos and the eastern portion alongside today's Ruas Neves Ferreira and Tenente Valdim (Madragoa). They became dismantled after independence, the cannons exists today as a tourist attraction. In the northeastern corner overlooks Achada Grande, it is in the area of Miradouro do Cruzeiro.

Manuel António Martins who later became governor in 1833 instigated a riot in 1821 that would overthrow the governor António Pusich. After the riots, João da Mata Chapuzet became colonial governor in 1822, he underwent large modernization of the city, he designed A military barracks in the southeastern end and was completed in 1826. A building would be built in 1840 and became the city's ethnographic museum in 1997, it has crimson-rose painted wall in the exterior. The Liceu Nacional was first constructed in 1860 under the colonial governor Januário Correia de Almeida. Praia's Cathedral was first built in 1902. All of the buildings in the city were on the Plateau until 1880. The plateau is the part where it features buildings made out of colonial architecture as well as neoclassical. The northern part of the plateau became built up in around the early 20th century. Electricity was introduced in 1927, the first in any region in Cape Verde, much of it was in the Plateau and some of it was in Gamboa. Certeza was published in this area between March 1944 and 1945, afterwards it was banned by the censors, a milestone in Cape Verdean literature, it was later banned by the censors a year later, three editions were published. In 1960, Cape Verde's first primary school known as Escola Grande opened in the 1960s.

There have been successive proposals for transferring the capital elsewhere, the most recent being Mindelo in the late 19th century. However, the successive Portuguese administrations never showed an interest (economical or political?) in such proposals. Through an official decree in 1858, when Praia's status was changed from town to city.

The population in the 1840s was about 4,000 and later about 10,000 in the 1880s. During the Portuguese administration, only the central plateau was considered to be the city proper and thus the principal zone of urbanization and concentration of municipal services. It was only after independence (July 1975) that the surrounding neighbourhoods generally became accepted as part of the city proper.

The statute of Caetano Alexandre de Almeida e Albuquerque was erected in Albuquerque square in 1926. Later the statue of Serpa Pinto was also erected in the square and one unnamed street would be named after and one of several that is still named today. The statue of António Loreno is also located in the plateau.

After independence, some of the street names were changed, one changed to Amílcar Cabral, the others to 5 de Julho, Patrice Lumumba and António Nunes. Some like Rua Serpa Pinto, António Pusich, João da Matta Chapuzet , Fontes Pereira de Melo, Pereira de Sampaio (governor fro, 1879 to 1881), (João) Cesário de Lacerda (after a colonial governor from 1887 to 1889 and 1899 to 1900), Borjona da Freitas, Governador Roçadas (governor from 1950 to 1953) and Júlio d'Abreu (governor from 1924 to 1926) are kept.

In the late 1990s, three more banks opened its head offices on the Plateau, the city center. In 2002, Avenida Combatentes da Liberdade da Patria went under construction and finished in 2003, it was the extension of what was Rua do Porto and encircles the east of the Plato, two rotaries exists in the northern part, before there was never a road in that area. This bypassed all the main traffic from the Plato a directed it on the avenue. The main flow between the south and the north of the city and its port and airport is on that avenue, in the 1980s, most of the main traffic was at Avenida Cidade de Lisboa, a part of the traffic between the south of the city and the north of the island continues on that avenue.

In 2005, a French fishing boat sunk very close to the mouth of Ribeira da Trindade on the boundary with Achada Grande to the east. A few years later in that area, the new location of Sociedade Cabo-verdiana de Cerveja e Refrigerantes (SCCR), the Cape Verdean major beverage company started construction of its factory in 2008 and was completed in 2009.

Pedestrianization of the streets was completed in about 2009, about four became partly pedestrianized, the longest being Rua 5 de Julho.

World Heritage Site elevation plans

A plan to make the historic center as a World Heritage Site began as a nomination in 2004, one of eight in the tentative list. No plans have been made.

About the Plateau

Its streets are predominantly a grid plan. Numerous streets include Avenida Andrade Corvo, Rua 5 de Julho, Rua Serpa Pinto, Avenida Amílcar Cabral, etc, the area's main street is Amílcar Cabral.. There are only three streets accessing the plateau and other parts of the city, two are in the north, one being Av. Amílcar Cabral, the second Dr. António Loreno and the third a ramp named São Januário. Up to the mid 20th century, there was a street connected to Sucupira portion of Várzea. Some four or five streets have become pedestrianized, one is the longest and a block of Serpa Pinto. Numerous squares includes Diogo Gomes in the south which features a Diogo Gomes inside the lesser neighborhood of Mirador Diogo Gomes and Albuquerque in the south-center, the largest in the neighborhood. Buildings surrouding the square includes Our Lady of Grace (Nossa Senhora da Graça) Cathedral in the east and the city hall in the south. The other three are in the north, one named António Loreno (once named Luis de Camões) which features a bust of Loreno made by Maximiano Alves and one being a circle named after Domingos Ramos along with the lyceum.

In street numbers they go northward on Avenida Amílcar Cabral, southward on Rua 5 de Julho and westward on Rua Patrice Lumumba.

The city's market takes place in and within Avenida Amílcar Cabral some weekends and much of it is about 500 meters long, one portion is a market square about 60x50 meters just a block north of the square, most of its streets are pedestrianiized and extends east to Rua 5 de Julho.

Government buildings and some embassies are located in the plateau. The headquarters of African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) is in the northern part on Avenida Amílcar Cabral.

Some embassies are located including Belgian, the Dutch (the two are in the same building) located on 2 Rua Patrice Lumumba and the United States Embassy in the north.

Hotels include Praia Maria located at 30 Rua 5 de Julho, Hotel Santa Maria on Rua Serpa Pinto, Jaló on Rua António Pusich, Santa Sofia, Rosymar Inn and Sol Atlântico, the latter on Avenida Amílcar Cabral.

Numerous bank's head offices are at the Plateau, the center, it includes Banco Caboverdiano de Negócios in the north opened in 1998, Banco Comercial do Atlântico opened in 1998, Banco Interatlântico opened in 1999 and the Bank of Cape Verde, the last three located within Albuquerque Square.

Landmarks and points of interest

Panoramics

It is one part of the city that offers beautiful panoramics including the southern part with Gamboa, Achada Santo António, Vàrzea including the stadium, the National Library and the government building housing the National Assembly and Ilhéu de Santa Maria, the western part of the city with a mountain at the westernmost part and northwest, the island's tallest summit Pico da Antónia, the northcentral part including Eugénio Lima, the eastern part and the Port of Praia.

Transportation

Ten transit lines passes through the plateau often or sometimes, the last three do not cross by the Atlantic, they include:

Notable people