Lat: -23.866616985255000, Long: 35.381191994484000

Inhambane

Inhambane, Mozambique

Historical Background and Urbanism

Inhambane, as an initial urban place, received a first settlement in 1727-1730 and was granted a royal charter on the 9th May 1761. Portuguese sovereignty was acknowledged in 1763, and it was elevated to town status in 1764. In the late 18th century, it had around 200 Christians. In 1781 a Portuguese source mentioned a palisade surrounding and protecting the church, the houses of the captain and the priest, and a small vegetable garden. The emerging core encompassed the Fort Saint John of Boavista and the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Square. It had already about 4,000 inhabitants in 1858, among them three-quarters slaves. The above-mentioned fort was still intact nearly a century later, in 1862-1878. The map of 1885 shows an urban area based on an irregular grid, with a number of houses at the centre around the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Square, the current location of the main public buildings (church, finances office, captaincy, government, administration). The square is also mentioned in a Planta da Fortificação de Inhambane of 1821. Around 1928 (100 years later), Inhambane was the main settlement of the region, but it was only elevated to city status in 1956. There is a Mapa Geral de Inhambane e área envolvente, by the Direcção de Serviços de Agrimensura (Land-Surveying Department), drawn over an aerial photograph from 1948 and updated in 1958. There is also knowledge of the Plano de Urbanização de Inhambane, of 1956, by João António de Aguiar, and a Plano de Urbanização de Inhambane e Maxixe, by João José Tinoco, dating from 1967. North of Inhambane territory is the Archipelago of Bazaruto, which includes six islands. The most important is Bazaruto (or Santa Carolina). These coastal islands, near the village of Vilanculos were granted to the Portuguese in 1722, and effectively occupied in 1855, with the construction of a settlement on the main island. “Saint John The Baptist Fort was built in 1862-1877, and sanitary measures were taken by the municipality in the 1880’s. The Hindu local community became important from the early 20th century, with a civic association founded in 1928. The railway to Inharrime started functioning in 1912-1915. Electricity and water supplies arrived to the city in 1923-1928. The urban ensemble was officially declared Cultural Heritage in 1988.” Monuments and Statuary Monument to Vasco da Gama in the central garden of Inhambane (built in 1960). On a late Art Deco pedestal, with vertical lines this is a figurative and realistic representation.

José Manuel Fernandes

Religious Architecture

Equipment and Infrastructures