Sao Vicente
A
volcanic origin Island, Sao Vicente has 227
Km2
and possesses very particular characteristics. Firstly discovered in
1462, Saint Vincent day, a religious date that was celebrated in that
period, it kept unpopulated until the second part of the 19th
Century. The name of the city, Mindelo, was given in memory of the
liberal troops that disembarked in a beach called Mindelo, in the
north of Portugal.
In 1850, a coal company decides to establish in Mindelo, what will make the Port, Porto Grande, and the bay,
a strategic point for all of those
who made commerce through the
Atlantic seas. And it was exactly from that moment on that the island
started to
progress,
bringing in people,
with
the necessity to move to this
island to work,
live and
making its economy start to grow
basically over commerce and services.
The ships that passed through Mindelo in that period, came from every
part of the world, left indelible influences, specially in its
culture, becoming a huge cultural centre, where sports, music and
literature would project the island with a very distinct identity,
which prevails and
keeps
growing.
The
Baia das Gatas Festival, the Carnival, the Gastronomy, the beautiful
beaches all around the island, the goodwill of its dwellers are as
well very particular characteristics of Sao Vicente.
