Lat: 12.277044004694000, Long: -16.167218999541000

Cacheu

Guinea-Bissau | Gulf of Guinea | São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau

Historical Background and Urbanism

Cacheu, a town located on the left bank of River Cacheu (or São Domingos – Saint Dominic), about 25 km from the mouth, was one of the major ports of Guinea-Bissau and played an important strategic role on the west coast of Africa. The sailor Cadamosto probably stayed there on his second journey in 1456. It was the first trading post established by Portuguese traders in the 16th century, lying between the River Casamansa and River Grande, then dependent on Cape Verde. Throughout the 17th century, it would become one of the main slave entrepots for the Americas, thus contributing to the marginalization of Santiago Island, in Cape Verde, in relation to the Atlantic slave routes. António de Barros Bezerra was its first captain-major. In the exercise of his duties, he took charge of the island’s defense, surrounding it with a palisade in the late 16th century. In 1588 Manuel Lopes Cardoso fortified the settlement with permission from the local king, this fact did not prevent it from being attacked by the natives two years later. It was elevated to town status in 1605. The present day fort of Cacheu was built in 1641, by captain-major Gonçalo Gambôa de Ayalla, aimed at defending it against Spanish ships. In 1647 it was still under construction and stonemasons and other workmen were sent to Cacheu in that year for its construction. In order to develop trade in the region the Companhia de Cacheu, Rios e Comércio da Guiné was created in 1675. A few years later, in 1690, under the rule of King Pedro II, it was replaced by the Companhia de Cacheu e Cabo Verde. This company was later moved to Bissau and its business shifted in 1755 to the Companhia de Grão-Pará e Maranhão until 1778. With the gradual development of Bolama and Bissau, Cacheu decreased in importance. The town was composed of two districts, called Vila Fria and Vila Quente. The first, Vila Fria, was the area where the white men lived, including the captain-major; it essentially consisted of two streets, which sprawled out along the river. The first street, closer to the river, was Rua Direita; the second, behind it, was Street of Santo António. At one end of it stood the fort. The hospital of the hermits of Saint Agustine, concluded in 1660, with the name of Our Lady of Pity, was another polarizing element in the city; there remain no traces of this convent. The block named Vila Quente, far from the river, was inhabited by black people, being composed of adobe huts with thatched roofs, arranged in a non-geometric pattern. A plan for the construction of new bystreets and three squares, that of Casa-Forte, of Casa de Pedra, and of Feira was elaborated in 1950. In the mid-twentieth century, Cacheu was a small city with a layout organized according to a plan kept at the Historical Records of Guinea. The urban layout of the central area was complemented by the creation of a new avenue for entrance into the city, which intersected the former longitudinal streets and defined a rectangular square in front of the river, at the junction with the former Rua Direita. Today it is a degraded urban area, without pavements or sidewalks, with old houses with zinc roofs beside the muddy and pockholed streets. Its population, which had about 1,800 inhabitants in the mid-nineteenth century today has around 5,500.

Manuel Teixeira

Military Architecture

Fort

Religious Architecture

Church of Our Lady of the Nativity

Equipment and Infrastructures

Equipment and Infrastructures