Fortress of S. Miguel
AngolaMinisterio da CulturaInstituto Nacional do Patrimonio Cultural
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Description
The Fortress of "S. Miguel" is established in the old mountain of S. Paulo, near the bridge of Luanda Island.
It is the first defensive edification built in Angola, and Paulo Dias de Novais, the first Governor of Angola who unshiped in Luanda in 1575, sent it built. It is a huge ~ area walled in fortifications and countreforts, rubblework edification with a polygonal form.
In 1641, occupied by netherlanders, the Fortress is object of the first real attack; in 1648 the battle is finised with the surrender and expelling of the netherlander troops by the portugueses.
The Fortress of "S. Miguel", like many others, will come to justify the portuguese belicose presence in Angola, protecting the harbour and the village of Luanda which stocked marchandises and slaves captured in the factories from the interior, before embarking to the american lands ,and providing its defence against the other colonial potencies desirous of exercising their hegemony in the region.
This Fortress is preserved in its totality and it had not any desintegration.
This unportant Historical Monument is actually the Central Museum of the Army. It belongs to the Government and it is in a good order. The responsibility for its maintenance and preservation concerns the Ministries of Defence and Culture.