Fort Duque de Bragança

Fort Duque de Bragança is located on Djeu, the islet in front of Sal-Rei, a culminating point, 1.88 km wide and 0.88 km long, fronting the bay of the port of the town of Sal Rei, on the northwest coast of Boa Vista Island. The island was looted between 1815 and 1817, because of its importance to the export of salt, cotton, cattle, lime and ceramics, which led to the construction of the fort in 1820 to protect the island of Boa Vista from pirates and corsairs frequent in this region of the Atlantic Ocean.

But the fort did not hold out for long. Currently, in ruins, it has been an archaeological prospect of the University of Cambridge. Excavations of archaeological sites in the Fort Duque de Bragança started March 25, in partnership with the City Hall of Boa Vista.

Its rehabilitation fits in the National Plan of Rehabilitation of the Historical Buildings and Religious Studies by the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries, through the Institute of Cultural Heritage.

Some History: Returning to Boavista, Councilor Manuel António Martins, despite his efforts to capture the pirates and recover his daughter Maria, was unable to do anything. Therefore, he decided to have a fortress built on the islet in front of the city of Sal Rei at his own expense. The construction of this fortress was reported by Senna Barcellos as follows: “Martins himself also made the generous and patriotic offer to the government to build, at his own expense, a fortification on the island of Boavista, where he had a commercial house, capable of putting the port in conditions of safety and respect“.

Accepting the offer, with a royal letter dated October 3, 1818, instructions were sent to the commander of the island at that time, Colonel Aniceto António Ferreira, “to immediately begin the planned defense under his direction and disposition, for which the appropriate cannons taken from those existing on the island of São Tiago would be sent in due time, and which were to be garrisoned by a squad leader and ten soldiers from the artillery company of the city of Praia, who, together with some militia soldiers to be trained on Boavista, would be responsible for the regular service of that fortress.”

The fortress remained unnamed for a long time, until the Governor-General, Francisco de Paula Bastos, finally gave it the name “Duque de Bragança”. The name “Duque de Bragança” is probably linked to the role the Duke had played in the appointment of Manuel António Martins as Prefect of Cape Verde. In fact, it was the Duke, as regent of the kingdom, who thanked Martins when he congratulated Queen Maria da Glória on her acclamation, after the victory of the liberals against the absolutists, and it was the same Duke of Bragança who appointed Martins as Prefect of Cape Verde in 1832.

Taken from the historian António Germano Lima.