Fortaleza de Maputo

The Fort Nossa Senhora da Conceição of Lourenço Marques, nowadays known as the Maputo Fortress (Fortaleza de Maputo), is located at Praça 25 de Junho in Maputo, Mozambique. It is a historical monument with a square floor plan built in reddish stone masonry. It features a single access gate opening onto a central courtyard, which houses an equestrian statue of Mouzinho de Albuquerque and the mortal remains of Gungunhana.

The original structure on the site was a fortified trading post built about a quarter of a mile from the mouth of the Espírito Santo River by the Dutch from Cape Town. The expedition consisted of 113 men, under the command of Klaas Nieuhof, in two ships, the Gouda and the Caap. Having left the Cape on February 19, 1721, they reached Maputo Bay in early April. After obtaining the authorization of the local chief, they started a wooden fort, with a pentagon plan: the Fort Lijdzaamheid. Having suffered all manner of difficulties, in about six months about half of the Europeans had perished, mainly victims of malaria. Even with the arrival of reinforcements from the Cape by the ships Zeelandia and Uno, bringing 72 more men and supplies, the scenario did not change.

On the morning of April 11, 1722, three English pirate ships under the command of Captain George Taylor, operating in the waters of the Mozambique Channel, entered Maputo Bay, pursued by four ships of the English East India Company, the Lion, the Salisbury, the Exeter and the Shoreham. The pirate vessels were the Victory, with 64 cannons, the Cassandra, with 36, and a French boat captured off the island of Santa Maria. In total, they had a force of 900 men. On April 18, they decided to capture the Dutch trading post, which they bombarded, captured a boat and the ship De Caap, until, at 5 pm, the white flag of surrender was hoisted from the fort.

Knowing that Van de Capelle, the second-in-command, had fled to the interior with eighteen men, the English demanded his immediate return, on pain of razing the establishment to the ground. Without the Dutch returning, the fort and trading post were destroyed by the English, who withdrew two months later, at the end of June.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons