This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Mauritsstad" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}@media all and (max-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{width:auto!important;clear:none!important;float:none!important))You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (October 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Mauritstad]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template ((Translated|fr|Mauritstad)) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Mauritsstad in 1645, colored copperplate engraving, heightened with gold by Johan van Brosterhuysen, after a design by Frans Post.
Watercolour chart of the cities of Mauritsstad and Recife in the 17th century.

Mauritsstad (or Mauritius) was the capital of Dutch Brazil, and is now a part of the Brazilian city of Recife.

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 gained control of Olinda by 16 February 1630, and both Recife and the island of António Vaz (opposite Recife) by 3 March 1630.[1]

The city of Mauritsstad was built on António Vaz and was designed by architect Pieter Post. 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 and the first zoo in the Americas, 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

Main article: Forte de São Tiago das Cinco Pontas

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.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ "Recife—A City Made by Sugar". Awake!. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  2. ^ van Nederveen Meerkerk, H.C. (1991), "Fortificaties in Hollantsch Brasil", Bulletin KNOB, vol. 6, pp. 205–210
  3. ^ Temminck Groll, C.L.; van Alphen, W. (2002). The Dutch Overseas Architectural Survey: Mutual heritage of four centuries in three continents. Zwolle: Waanders Uitgevers. p. 45.

Categories