Maputo City Hall or Municipal Council Building of Maputo ( Portuguese: ''Edifício do Conselho Municipal de Maputo'') is the seat of the local government of the capital of

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. The neoclassical building is located at the head of ''

Praça da Independência Praça da Independência ( English: Independence Square) is a public square and focal point of Maputo, Mozambique. It was built by the Portuguese as Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque (''Mouzinho de Albuquerque Square'') and was dominated by a statue o ...

'' (Independence Square), and was erected in 1947.

History

José Maria da Silva Cardoso José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, the Mayor of

Lourenço Marques Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

, as Maputo was known in the colonial period, opened an architecture competition for a new city hall in the 1930s. The need for a new city hall was spurred by the ongoing growth of the colonial city. The Portuguese-Brazilian architect Carlos César dos Santos won the competition in 1938. In 1941, the new mayor, Francisco dos Santos Pinto Teixeira, started construction works on the new building, which was built facing on to ''Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque'' (renamed ''

'' in 1975). It was finished in 1947. Santos designed the new ''

Câmara Municipal Câmara (meaning " chamber") is a common surname in the Portuguese language. It may also refer to: People * António de Vasconcelos e Sousa Câmara Caminha Faro e Veiga, 8th Count of Calheta, 4th Marquis of Castelo Melhor and Constable of Portug ...

'' Building (the new City Hall) with a trapezoidal layout situated on a hill, so it became automatically the focal point of the ''Avenida D. Luis'' (today

Samora Machel Avenue Samora is a unisex given name and a surname. People with the name include: Given name * Samora Fihlani (born 1985), South African rugby union player * Samora Goodson (born 1984), American football player * Samora Khulu (died 2008), South Africa ...

), which connects the Independence Square with the city's downtown area, (

Baixa The Baixa ("Downtown"), also known as the Baixa Pombalina (; "Pombaline Downtown"), is a neighborhood in the historic center of Lisbon, Portugal. It consists of the grid of streets north of the Praça do Comércio, roughly between the Cais do So ...

). The city hall has a façade of and is completely designed in the Neoclassical fashion and follows the architectonic '' beaux-art'' rules. Due to financial constraints, the city government chose

artificial stone Artificial stone is a name for various synthetic stone products produced from the 18th century onward. Uses include statuary, architectural details, fencing and rails, building construction, civil engineering work, and industrial applications su ...

instead of

dimension stone Dimension stone is natural stone or Rock (geology), rock that has been selected and finished (e.g., trimmed, cut, drilled or ground) to specific sizes or shapes. Color, Texture (geology), texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are ...

. Lourenço Marques' government (''Câmara Municipal de Lourenço Marques'') moved into the new structure in 1947. It remained seat of the Maputo city government after Mozambique's independence in 1975. The city government which occupies the building is now called the ''Conselho Municipal de Maputo'' in Portuguese. The Maputo City Hall was added to the list of cultural monuments of Maputo in 2011. Furthermore, it is listed in the Portuguese heritage database ''Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico '' (SIPA) under the number 31708.

Literature

* André Renga Faria Ferreira: ''Obras públicas em Moçambique: inventário da produção arquitectónica executada entre 1933 e 1961'', Master thesis at Coimbra University, Coimbra, 2006 (

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

External links

{{Commons category, Conselho Municipal de Maputo

References

Seats of local government Buildings and structures in Maputo Government buildings completed in 1947 Beaux-Arts architecture Neoclassical architecture in Mozambique Portuguese colonial architecture in Mozambique