View of Vrijburg Castle near Mauritsstad from the East

Mauritsstad (or Mauritius) was the capital of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

, and is now a part of the Brazilian city of

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

History

A Dutch fleet of 65 ships led by Hendrick Corneliszoon Loncq led a siege against Portuguese Brazil in 1630. The

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

gained control of Olinda by 16 February 1630, and both Recife and the island of António Vaz (opposite Recife) by 3 March 1630. The city of Mauritsstad was built on António Vaz and was designed by architect

Pieter Post Pieter Post in 1651. Portrait by Pieter Nolpe, detail of a larger work Pieter Jansz Post (1 May 1608 – buried 8 May 1669) was a Dutch Golden Age architect, painter and printmaker. Biography Post was baptised in Haarlem, the son of a s ...

. It was named after Governor Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, who had founded the city and the adjoining palace Vrijburgh. Mauritsstad was the cultural center of the New World, with the first

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

and the first zoo in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, and a museum with three hundred stuffed monkeys. The city's Jewish population constructed the first synagogue in the Americas. The city was eventually recaptured by the Portuguese in 1654.

Fort Frederik Hendrik

Fort Frederik Hendrik (''Forte de São Tiago das Cinco Pontas'') was a pentagonal fortress built near Mauritsstad in 1630 that was demolished by the Portuguese in 1677.

References

{{coord missing, Pernambuco Dutch Brazil Historic Jewish communities History of Recife Geography of Pernambuco Former colonial capitals Jews and Judaism in Recife Populated places established by the Dutch West India Company