Santiago,
Cape Verde: the island guide

The Platô, the historic heart

Praia's story begins here, on the plateau that overlooks both the sea and the interior — hence its name. At the foot of its ramparts lay the port where, from the 16^th century onwards, enslaved people brought from the West African coast were landed. A church was built to administer this trading post, and mansions to house the representatives of the Portuguese Crown.

‘Old Praia’ is recognisable by the perfect alignment of its buildings. The hospital, the government offices and the municipal market are all here. Praça Alexandre Albuquerque, inspired by 19^th-century Portuguese town planning, gathers the cathedral, the courthouse, the Ildo Lobo Palace of Culture and the presidential residence. Plenty of restaurants here serve excellent food at reasonable prices.

Sala-Museu Amílcar Cabral

This memorial space, opened in 2015, centres on the life and work of national hero Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973), an emblematic figure of independence in West Africa. A charismatic politician, he worked to free Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau from Portuguese colonial rule.

Run by the foundation of the same name, the museum brings together photos, books, videos and copies of speeches by the independence leader. Visits are guided.

Palacio da Cultura Ildo Lobo

This small early-19^th-century palace is one of the Platô's most emblematic buildings. Given over to culture since the late 1990s, it houses an exhibition hall, a bookshop and media library, and a concert hall.

Drop in: the music programme is well worth a look, and it's the easiest place to stumble on a concert without having planned anything.

Museu Arqueológico

Since the 15^th century, more than a hundred and fifty ships have run aground on Cape Verde's shores. The objects recovered during excavations are displayed here — jewellery, tableware, coins, ivory pieces, amphorae — and presented by ‘wreck zone’, a dozen of them along the coast of Cidade Velha alone.

The curiosity of the place: a replica of a Portuguese astrolabe from 1645. One can only regret that the original sits in a museum in Virginia, sold for tens of thousands of dollars.

Museu Etnográfico

The collection gives a sense of everyday life in times past: ceramics, basketry, small cabinetry, weaving. So many crafts that show the ingenuity of Cape Verdeans in drawing from nature the raw materials they needed to make tools, objects and clothing.

You'll see panu di terra — the traditional woven cloths — and various utensils for making goat's cheese, witnesses to a rural life collected mostly on Santo Antão, São Vicente, Boa Vista and Brava.

The Mercado de Sucupira

From nine in the morning, the roadway is taken over by traders rolling, with an almighty racket, the metal drums in which the goods shipped in by boat arrive. Sucupira is the ‘drum market’ — and the best place on the island to take the pulse of the city.

You'll find clothes, fabrics, tableware, haberdashery, shoes, cosmetics, furniture, fruit and vegetables, goods from China and from West Africa alike. Prices are there to be haggled. And if you want an outfit made to measure, this is the place: the Guinean tailors are hugely talented.

The Mercado Municipal

A vast covered hall built in 1924 and completely refurbished in 2016, lively from morning till night. Climb to the upper floor: from up there you look down on the vegetable stalls and see the butchers' and fishmongers' stands — it's the best spot for good photos.

At lunchtime you can eat here for next to nothing: a generous plate of fish or chicken with rice and vegetables costs no more than 200 CVE. You won't regret this experience, as close to local life as it gets.

The beaches of São Tomé and São Francisco

The easiest way to reach these two spots is to hire a car — the aluguer would be cheaper but frankly exhausting. You get there along a cobbled track in fairly good condition, from the villages of São Tomé and the bay of São Francisco.

The place is one of absolute calm, often deserted, and has no other draw than its two lovely white-sand beaches — which is more than enough. Praia's residents come here at the weekend: it's the discreet getaway spot for this part of the island.

Faról da Dona Maria Pia

It's the first building you spot when arriving by boat. Built in 1881 above Prainha beach, it bears the name of Maria Pia of Savoy, wife of Luís I of Portugal, who reigned from 1861 to 1889. This 19^th-century lighthouse is still in service.

Climb right to the top: the view over the bay is superb. The keeper speaks English and will happily give you a talk on the country's history and the current socio-political situation — it's often the best part of the visit.

What Cidade Velha tells us

Cradle of the archipelago, this historic town is a living witness to its rich past. It also holds a chapter of the long and tragic history of the slave trade, and it is for that as much as for its ruins that it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009.

You visit on foot, walking down from the village to the sea, then back up to the fortress. Allow a good half-day if you want to see everything without rushing.

The Praça do Pelourinho

This is the best-preserved site from the grim era of slavery in Cape Verde. On this small pillory square, facing the sea, stands a white marble column in the Manueline style, raised in 1512 and topped with an armillary sphere, the symbol of the navigators.

Enslaved people who tried to escape were tortured and then killed on this public square, to deter any attempt at rebellion. It is chilling to imagine the place of terror it once was.

The Rua Banana

An unmissable stop: this is the first street built in the tropics on European town-planning lines. Two hundred metres lined with small stone houses, thatched and whitewashed.

The parallel Rua Carrera has a row of identical buildings. In the 16^th century there were around five hundred houses of this kind. Some of these cottages are now guest rooms — so you can sleep here.

Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário

It dates from 1495, making it one of the oldest buildings in Cape Verde and one of the rare examples of Gothic architecture in sub-Saharan Africa. Its state of preservation is exceptional.

It's said that Vasco da Gama, Magellan and Christopher Columbus came to recite their Pater Noster here when passing through. Nothing remains of its ornaments and furnishings, apart from some magnificent tombstones in the central aisle. A permanent exhibition of photos and engravings sheds light on how the town evolved.

Catedral São Francisco and its convent

A small field overlooking the bay, strewn with ruins: that's all that remains of the cathedral whose construction began in 1556 at the instigation of Bishop Francisco da Cruz. The side walls, which survived the sacking by the French privateer Jacques Cassard in the 18^th century, give a sense of its scale.

The Convento de São Francisco, raised in the 17^th century for the Franciscan priests, was destroyed in a pirate attack; only the little church was spared. Fully restored with the support of Spanish development aid in the 2000s, it's worth the visit if only for its altar and its stone vault.

Fortaleza Real de São Filipe

This fortress was built on the heights above Cidade Velha in response to the attacks of the English pirate Francis Drake, between 1578 and 1585. The complex, with its imposing walls, is punctuated by four watchtowers and contains, inside, the governor's residence and a cistern.

The site has been handsomely restored, and the view over the bay is magnificent. It's the logical end point of the visit: you climb up last, as the light fades.

Centro cultural Cidade Velha

The centre displays objects illustrating the daily life and struggles of Cape Verdeans down the centuries: archaeological finds, old maps, traditional tools, but also works of art.

It also promotes the region's artistic wealth through cultural events, temporary exhibitions, workshops and talks — check the programme when you arrive.

São Domingos and Rui Vaz

A small town of two and a half thousand people, nestled in lovely greenery — which, as it happens, earned it a visit from Charles Darwin. Life here revolves around farming, but also crafts: pottery, textiles, basketry. The church perches on the heights.

Eight hundred metres higher, in the heart of an acacia forest, the village of Rui Vaz is reached by car along a cobbled road. From there a trail leads to Monte Tchota (1,041 m), with a superb panorama over the peaks and valleys, and on towards Pico da Antónia.

São Jorge dos Órgãos and the botanical garden

The village deserves a stop for its Jardim Botânico Nacional Grandvaux Barbosa, created in 1986 and named after a Portuguese botanist, Luís Augusto Grandvaux Barbosa (1914-1983), author of several works on the flora of the archipelago.

It's a place out of time, a world away, where you let yourself be lulled by birdsong — turtle doves, Cape Verde swifts, warblers. Across more than two hectares it preserves around a hundred native plants and trees — hydrangea, hibiscus, palms — and many endangered endemic species: false date palms, spurges, wormwoods. Benches and tables let you linger.

Picos, the village on the ridge

You can spot this village from afar: it perches on a mountain ridge, sheltered by an enormous rock that seems to watch over its magnificent white church, whose two towers soar skywards.

The main street leading up to the church is a delight of small, brilliantly coloured houses surrounded by flowering trees. Down below in the valley you can make out one of the only dragon trees on the island of Santiago — easy to pick out, the green of its foliage stands out against the other trees.

Parque Natural da Serra Malagueta

This protected area rises to over a thousand metres and is known for sheltering the greatest number of endemic plants in Cape Verde. From the highest point of the massif you get a panoramic view over the whole island.

A free map is available at the park office, from which the various hiking trails set off.

Assomada and its market

Set in the most fertile farming valley in Cape Verde, Assomada is the most important town after Praia. It's known as the birthplace of many members of the political and business elite.

People come above all for the fairground atmosphere of the Assomada market — the best days are Wednesday and Saturday. All sorts of goods at very attractive prices: wander the stalls and chat with the women traders, who'll have you tasting their produce.

Fonte Lima and its ceramics

In Fonte Lima, the village women keep alive an old ceramics tradition. These women, most of them elderly, combine this craft with other work such as tilling the land. The potters gather at the Casa Ceramica cooperative.

Means remain limited: the clay is prepared then moulded, the pieces covered with leaves and fired in a traditional kiln, directly on the ground. Tableware, decorative pieces, jars for storing water or the harvest — everything is for sale on the spot. Visits to the workshop are arranged through local agencies.

Ribeira da Barca and the Águas Belas cave

A little fishing village hidden behind the mountains. Coming from Assomada, after eleven kilometres leave the Tarrafal road and turn left: you pass through a mountain gorge with a breathtaking view, skirt rugged terrain, then slip down into the hollow of the valley to a small bay.

Few visitors come here, yet the surroundings hide a natural curiosity: the Águas Belas cave, a sort of arch carved into the rock by erosion. You reach it by small boat from the village.

Tarrafal de Santiago

Blessed with a magnificent beach — by far the finest on Santiago — Tarrafal is the seaside resort par excellence. For some years now it has seen the same galloping urbanisation as the capital, its centre a mix of plush villas, buildings under construction and small houses unfinished but lived in.

Head for the beach: white sand, clear water, coconut palms, colourful fishing boats — this is where the locals come to party. Divers get their fill here too.

Campo de Concentração and Museu da Resistência

Behind a curtain of tall trees, a faded, sinister perimeter wall sets the tone of the terror that long haunted this place. The Chão Bom prison camp was built in 1936, first to lock up opponents of Salazar's dictatorship, then, from 1960, anti-colonial militants from Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Angola. Many died here.

Turned into a Museum of the Resistance in 2000, it displays portraits and letters of deportees, as well as photos of the struggle for independence. You also see the three-square-metre cells with no openings, the refectory, the torture chamber, and the infirmary where racist quotes from the doctor hang on the walls. Since 2005, the government has been hoping to have the site listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Espinho Branco, home of the Rabelados

Here an unusual and endearing community awaits you: the Rabelados — the rebels. Discriminated against and deported to other islands, they decided, to safeguard their identity, to withdraw from the world. They built their houses of wood, bamboo or straw, and turned them to face Jerusalem.

Refusing to work for the state, they chose technical trades and crafts, and kept using their traditional medicines according to the lunar calendar. Today the village is honoured as Cape Verde's first traditional art village: you'll find workshops for ceramics, visual arts and stone carving. For a decade or so, a set of measures has aimed to improve the community's livelihoods while respecting its values.

Calheta de São Miguel and Pedra Badejo

Start with Calheta de São Miguel, a quiet little town that gives you the exquisite feeling of being at the end of the world, best enjoyed on its magnificent pebble beach.

Then head for the ruins of the Santiago Maior church, at the entrance to Pedra Badejo, before exploring the immense banana plantation that stretches for thirty kilometres. Follow a guide or get a grower to go with you: it's easy to get lost in this forest of banana trees, and finding your way back is anything but obvious.

The beaches of the east coast

The lovely black-sand beach at Pedra Badejo hosts a festival of traditional Cape Verdean music every July — and the swimming is pleasant.

Sixteen kilometres further south, a drivable track branches off to the right and follows the ribeira to Praia de Mangue, a vast black-sand beach. Don't hesitate to ask the way: everyone knows this beach, it's where people gather for the Sunday picnic. The path opens onto a lush row of coconut palms, a few colourful boats bring a touch of colour to the black sand, and the sea is calm.

Further south still, Praia Baixo welcomes you with a motley collection of plush villas belonging to wealthy emigrants. The black sand is very pleasant — when there's no wind. At the far end of the cove, a well-known open-air bar leans against the cliff.

The east coast road

Flatter and less spectacular than the northern road, the east coast is no less appealing. Seventy kilometres along the sea, passing through picturesque villages like that of the Rabelados at Espinho Branco.

It also reveals some lovely natural curiosities, as in the bay of São Francisco. If you go up to Tarrafal by the northern road, come back down this way: you'll have gone round the island without passing the same spot twice.