The Cape Verde Islands are set within the Atlantic Ocean with an impressive landscape and diverse culture. It was not until 1445 that the fifteen islands of the region were discovered and subsequently became a Portuguese colony. Only nine of the Cabo Verde islands are inhabited and Cidade Velha is where Cabo Verde’s history began.

The Nossa Senhora Do Rosario Church is more than five hundred years old and its tiny cemetery provides shelter for the graves of the first Portuguese who landed in the region. Its church bell and richly decorated altar were pillaged by Sir Francis Drake and shipped to England.

The tiny buildings of Rua De Banana were reconstructed true to the original, with the help of UNESCO. Low, elongated stone houses covered with straw, line the narrow road that leads up the valley, upstream from the sea.

In 1585 the royal pirate attacked with twenty five ships and more than a thousand men. Thus, major defences were subsequently built and from that time, Cidade Velha prepared for any possible future hostilities, a fact of which pirates soon became well aware and thus avoided the island. However, when the slave trade was made illegal and a severe drought hit the region, the heyday of the first capital of Cabo Verde came to a close.