The Praca Nova (officially Praca Amilcar Cabral) is Mindelo's social heart: a small leafy square in the centre of town, with a Portuguese-style bandstand at its core, jacaranda and Indian almond trees giving shade, and benches that fill up every evening with locals walking the slow Cape Verdean dusk.
The square is ringed by some of Mindelo's finest colonial buildings — the Pacos do Concelho (town hall), the Pro-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Light, the former Liceu Velho — and serves as the natural starting point for any walking tour of the centre. There is almost always free live music here on Friday and Saturday evenings.