Praia Harbor ( pt, Porto da Praia) is the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

of the city of

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. It is situated in a natural bay of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Since the latest modernization in 2014, it has 2 long quays, 3 shorter quays, a quay for fishing boats with fish processing installations, 2 container parks, 2 roll-on/roll-off ramps and a passenger terminal. The total length of the quays is 863 m, and the maximum depth is 13.5 m. The port of Praia played an important role in the colonization of Africa and South America by the Portuguese. With 817,845 metric tonnes of cargo and 85,518 passengers handled (2017), it is the second busiest port of Cape Verde, after

Porto Grande ''For São Vicente's main port, see Porto Grande, Cape Verde'' Porto Grande (Portuguese: ''Grand Harbor'', ) is a municipality located in the southeast of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 22,452 and its area is 4,425 km². O ...

(Mindelo). The bay of Praia lies between the headlands Ponta Temerosa and Ponta das Bicudas. The islet

Ilhéu de Santa Maria Ilhéu de Santa Maria (once known as ''Quail Island'') is a small uninhabited islet of the Sotavento archipelago in Cape Verde located off the shore of the island Santiago. Like all Cape Verdean islands, the islet is of volcanic origin. The isl ...

lies in the bay, west of the port. The river Ribeira da Trindade empties into the bay, between the city centre (

Plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

) and the port. Directly north of the port is the city subdivision

Achada Grande Frente Achada Grande Frente is a subdivision of the city of Praia in the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. Its population was 4,436 at the 2010 census. It is situated east of the city centre, between the Praia Harbour to the south and the Nelson Mandela I ...

History

Plan de la bataille de Porto Praya le 16 avril 1781

BARROW(1806) p098 PORTO PRAYA, ISLAND OF ST

IMRAY(1884) p0166 CAPE VERDE, PORTO PRAYA

The first mention of the Praia harbour dates from 1497, when explorer

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

anchored there on his way to India.Valor simbólico do centro histórico da Praia
Lourenço Conceição Gomes, Universidade Portucalense, 2008 There was a settlement at the bay already in 1515. In the 16th century the port developed into an important port of call for ships towards

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álvar ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, in rivalry with the nearby older port city Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha). Between the end of the 16th century and the end of the 18th century, both Ribeira Grande and Praia suffered many pirate attacks, including those by

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ...

( 1585) and

Jacques Cassard Jacques Cassard (30 September 1679 – 1740) was a French naval officer and privateer. Biography Born on 30 September 1679 to a family of merchants of Nantes, Cassard began a career as a sailor at age 14 on the merchantmen owned by his fa ...

(

1712 In the Swedish calendar it began as a leap year starting on Monday and remained so until Thursday, February 29. By adding a second leap day (Friday, February 30) Sweden reverted to the Julian calendar and the rest of the year (from Saturda ...

). The harbour was mentioned as "P. Praya" in the 1747 map by

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 21 March 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes. Bellin was born in Paris. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, member of t ...

. Praia gradually superseded Cidade Velha to become the most important port of Cape Verde, and became the capital of Cape Verde in 1770.Centre historique de Praia
UNESCO The naval

battle of Porto Praya The Battle of Porto Praya was a naval battle that took place during the American Revolutionary War on 16 April 1781 between a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone and a French squadron under the Bailli de Suffren. Both squadrons w ...

, part of the Anglo-French War of 1778-83, took place on April 16, 1781 inside the harbor. The port of Praia was the first stop of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

's voyage with in 1832. The old quay of São Januário was located at ''Praia Negra'', directly under the

Plateau (Praia) ''Plateau'' is the historic centre of the capital city of Praia in the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. It gets its name (from French “plateau”) because it is situated on a plateau overlooking the port of Praia. Its average elevation is 37 met ...

. A new wooden

pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

was built in 1880 near the customs house, which is now the National Archives of Cape Verde Building, south of the Plateau. This pier was replaced with a concrete pier in the late 1920s. In 1881 the Farol de D. Maria Pia was built at the harbor entrance. In the beginning of the 1960s new port facilities were constructed on the east side of the bay, 1 km southeast of the city centre. In the following years it was expanded and modernized, most recently in 2014.

Ferry services

There are ferry connections from Praia Harbor to the islands of

Brava Brava or La Brava may refer to: Geography *Brava, Cape Verde, a volcanic island *Brava, Costa Rica, an island of Costa Rica (Isla Brava) *Costa Brava, a coastal area Mediterranean of northeast Spain * Barawa, a town in Somalia commonly known as ' ...

, Fogo, São Nicolau, São Vicente, Maio, Boa Vista and

Sal Sal, SAL, or S.A.L. may refer to: Personal name * Sal (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname Places * Sal, Cape Verde, an island and municipality * Sal, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province * Ca ...

.Cabo Verde Fast Ferry's website
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History

Ferry services

See also