Pedra Badejo

Pedra Badejo
Coordinates: 15°08′13″N 23°32′02″W / 15.137°N 23.534°W / 15.137; -23.534Coordinates: 15°08′13″N 23°32′02″W / 15.137°N 23.534°W / 15.137; -23.534
Country Cape Verde
Island Santiago
Municipality Santa Cruz
Civil parish Santiago Maior
Population (2010)[1]
  Total 9,859

Pedra Badejo is a town in the eastern part of the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. It is situated on the east coast, 25 km north of the island capital Praia. It is the seat of Santa Cruz municipality. At the 2010 census, the town had 9,859 inhabitants.[1] In 2010, it was elevated to a city. Pedra Badejo has reached over 10,000 and is the third most populated place on the island, in 1990, the town was the second most populated place on the island.

Main Street.
Market Place and monument.
View to the harbour.

The city was called "Santiago Maior" until 1975.[2] This name is still common today.

There are a lot of shops in Main Street and in the Market Place where a sightworthy monument of a local musician is to be seen. Many daytrippers from Praia visit the beach which is close to the center of the city. A former health center close to the beach was transformed into a hotel.[3]

Pedra Badejo has at least five churches: the modern Catholic Church is in the new, upper part of the city, and the smaller New Apostolic Church is in Main Street. A Presbyterian Church, a Nazarene Church, and a Baptist church (meeting at the Baptist Theological Seminary facility at 53 Achada Fátima) also serve the community.

In the area features its lagoons, the Pedra Badejo Lagoons, they form part of the Pedra Badejo lagoons Important Bird Area[4] and Areia Grande, the town's beach. At Areia Grande helds a music festival each year being the top five music festivals in the nation.

Irrigated land in town.
New Apostolic Church.

The city is surrounded by irrigated land. An artificial lake (Barragem de Poilão) was laid out between the villages Poilão and Lavada dos Orgãos with a fill dam which was completed in 2006.[3] The reservoir has a capacity of 1.7 million cubic meters making the drip irrigation of 64 ha of land corresponding to about 100 farms possible.[5] The construction of the first concrete dam of Cape Verde was paid and planned by China. There is an information pavilion in the South of the artificial lake where some rare birds can be observed.

Demographics

Year Population
1990 5,302
2000 8,492
2010 9,859[6]

Sports

One of the Santiago North Zone Regional League's four stadiums are located. Desportivo de Santa Cruz, Scorpion Vermelho and Benfica de Santa Cruz are the chief clubs of Pedra Badejo.

Notable people

Twin towns

References

  1. 1 2 "2010 Census results". Instituto Nacional de Estatística Cabo Verde (in Portuguese). 17 March 2014.
  2. Osang, Rolf: KapverdischeInseln, p.127. Cologne 2001.
  3. 1 2 Reitmaier, Pitt: Cabo Verde, p.364-5. Bielefeld 2009.
  4. "Pedra Badejo Lagoons". BoirdLife indernational.
  5. A Semana, 29 de Outubro de 2009, http://asemana.sapo.cv.
  6. "2010 Census results" (in Portuguese). Instituto Nacional de Estatística Cabo Verde. Retrieved 17 March 2014.

Further reading

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