Viewpoints – Placecloud (English)

S o Benedito do Sul Brazil A quilombo is a remote, inland settlement originally settled by fugitive slaves, and, here, we find ourselves at the location of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a place sacred to the memory of the enslaved people brought from Africa to Brazil for a life of forced labour and violence starting in the 16th century.

Recife Brazil Regarding the figure of Maurice de Nassau, the most important local newspapers, such as the Diário da Manhã, still tended to praise him.

Jakarta Indonesia We find ourselves in the inner courtyard of the Wayang Museum in Jakarta Old Town. Before the current building was erected in 1912, this was the site of the New Dutch Church, and before that the Old Dutch Church, itself constructed on the site of the Dutch cemetery.

Recife Brazil Here, from Alto da Sé, the highest point in the town of Olinda, just north of Recife, you can see practically the entire length of the city which, in the 17th century, was a nearly inexhaustible source of goods and resources for the Portuguese colonial administrators to exploit.

Recife Brazil We're in front of the Apolo theatre, located in the city centre of Recife. This is the city’s oldest theatre, founded in 1842.

Recife Brazil We find ourselves in front of the town hall of Abreu e Lima, in the metropolitan region of Recife. The municipality honours José Inácio de Abreu e Lima, one of the most enigmatic and multifaceted figures in Brazilian history.

If you’re new to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, and you see how cosmopolitan this city is today, it might be difficult to imagine what it was like before the Dutch invasion in 1630.

Recife Brazil We are standing on the Boa Vista Bridge, “Boa Vista” simply meaning ‘lovely view’, built in 1876.

Recife Brazil We are at the Palácio do Campo das Princesas, located in the Santo Antônio neighbourhood of Recife, formerly known as Antônio Vaz Island. It serves as the seat of executive power for the state of Pernambuco and was founded in 1841.

Rio de Janeiro Brazil We're in the Glória neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, in front of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute. Here you'll find around 160.000 documents on national history, including books, periodicals, artefacts, paintings, albums, maps and atlases, and more.

Recife Brazil The Port of Recife, where we are now, is older than the city. Back in the mid-16th century, the natural formation of reefs on the Brazilian coast provided a separation between the coast and the deep sea of the Atlantic Ocean, creating an expansive, calm region close to the shore.

Recife Brazil Here, in the Convent of Santo Antônio, in the centre of the city of Recife, lies the body of the Brazilian soldier Henrique Dias.

Luanda Angola The National Slavery Museum, here in Luanda, the capital of Angola, was built in 1977 on the site of the Casa Grande Chapel, a 17th century temple where the enslaved were baptised before boarding the ships that took them to the Americas.

Recife Brazil We’re standing on the corner of Rua do Imperador and Rua Primeiro de Março, the home of the first astronomical observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Americas.

Alloa United Kingdom The Dunmore Pineapple is a folly in Stirlingshire, a county in Scotland.

Recife Brazil We find ourselves in front of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Casa Forte, one of the locations of the various battles that culminated in the expulsion of the Dutch from the north-east of Brazil in the 17th century.

Jaboat o dos Guararapes Brazil We are here at the entrance to the street that leads to Morro dos Guararapes, the scene of the Battles of Guararapes, which took place in 1648 and 1649, two armed conflicts between the troops of the Portuguese colony, which brought together indigenous peoples, Africans and Portuguese-Brazilians, and the Dutch forces, which had occupied Brazil since 1630 and had almos...

Recife Brazil We are standing in Praça do Carmo, in the city of Olinda. Here we find the Carmo Church, built on the ruins of a convent linked to the Carmelite Order, whose original construction dates back to 1580, which was during the first decades of Portuguese colonisation in Brazil.

Recife Brazil We’re at the beautiful Praça da República, in the city centre of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil.

Recife Brazil We are here at Fort Orange, one of the first fortifications built by the Dutch in Brazil, way back in 1631.

Recife Brazil The Forte das Cinco Pontas, where we are now, is one of the oldest buildings in Recife.

Recife Brazil We find ourselves in front of the Grêmio Musical Henrique Dias, the Henrique Dias Musical Guild, located in Rua Treze de Maio, in the Amparo neighbourhood, in the heart of the city of Olinda.

Recife Brazil To walk through the centre of Recife, whether you're a local or a tourist, is to embrace a continuous urban reconfiguration of particularly its older parts.

Recife Brazil It was right here, on Pau Amarelo Beach, on the northern coast of the state of Pernambuco, that, on February 16, 1630, the captains of the defence posts of the Portuguese colony in Brazil spotted a fleet of sixty-seven ships on the horizon.

Recife Brazil We're in Parque 13 de Maio, one of the best-known green areas in the centre of Recife. Surrounding this beautiful square are some of the most traditional public schools in the capital of Pernambuco and it's common to see students from several of them visiting the park on weekdays.