Cidade Velha

Cidade Velha — "Old City" — lies 15 kilometres west of Praia along the southern coast of Santiago. It was the first European city built in the tropics, founded in 1462 shortly after the Portuguese first settled the Cape Verde islands, and it became the launch point for much of Portugal's Atlantic expansion. In 2009 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site is compact and walkable: the ruined Cathedral (the oldest colonial cathedral in sub-Saharan Africa, destroyed by the English privateer Francis Drake in 1585 and never properly rebuilt), the Pelourinho in the main square, the hilltop Forte Real de São Filipe with its views over the bay, and the old streets of the lower town that preserve the layout of 15th-century colonial urbanism. Allow a half-day. Taxis from Praia take about 20 minutes and are inexpensive.

things to do sight
A story
Cidade Velha was the first European colonial city in the tropics, founded in 1462. It was also one of the first nodes in the Atlantic slave trade — enslaved people from the West African coast were processed and held here before being shipped to Brazil and the Caribbean. The Pelourinho (whipping post) that still stands in the main square was used to punish enslaved people; it is one of the most direct physical memorials to the slave trade anywhere in the Atlantic world.