Ponta do Sol, Cape Verde

Ponta do Sol
Settlement

View of Ponta do Sol
Ponta do Sol
Coordinates: 17°12′07″N 25°05′35″W / 17.202°N 25.093°W / 17.202; -25.093Coordinates: 17°12′07″N 25°05′35″W / 17.202°N 25.093°W / 17.202; -25.093
Country Cape Verde
Island Santo Antão
Municipality Ribeira Grande
Civil parish Nossa Senhora do Livramento
Population (2010)[1]
 • Total 2,143
Center of Ponta do Sol with its decorated street
The fishing port of Ponta do Sol

Ponta do Sol is the northernmost town on the island of Santo Antão and Cape Verde. It is situated on the coast, 4 km northwest of Ribeira Grande and 20 km north of the island capital Porto Novo. It is the seat of Ribeira Grande municipality. It is the northern terminus of the Ribeira Grande-Ponta do Sol Road. It has a tiny fishing port named Boca de Pistola, up to the late 20th century, it was the only point for markets, until the creation of the port in Porto Novo, it was used as a ferry port, the port was difficult to access.

Subdivisions

Ponta do Sol has six neighbourhoods including:

About the town

The point is located northwest of town and is 300 meters long, the northernmost point of Cape Verde extending up to the former Agostinho Neto Airport which was fully shut in 2007. Once natural, it is the only part were the extremity is on articially extended land and one of a few nations where the one of four extremities of the land is on artificially extended land.

The settlement along with Fontainhas were likely the first founded in 1584 and its first inhabitants came from Ponta do Sol in the Madeira Islands and later gave the name to the settlement of the settlers's origin. From the 1880s, when Maria Pia became queen up to around the 1950s, it was called Vila de María Pia, named after Maria Pia of Savoy, queen of Portugal. The older part of town features buildings made built in the 19th century with colonial architecture, its church is Nossa Senhora do Livramento built in the 18th century.

Its main industry are fishing and recently tourism. Beaches includes Aranhas and Motche[2]

Historical population

Year Population
1990 (Census) 1,505
2000 (Census) around 2,000
4,029[3]
2010 (Census)[4] 2,143

Persons

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ponta do Sol, Cape Verde.
  1. ↑ "2010 Census results". Instituto Nacional de Estatística Cabo Verde (in Portuguese). 17 March 2014.
  2. ↑ García, Jesús (2009). El mundo a tu aire: Cabo Verde. Madrid: Gaesa. p. 203. ISBN 978-84-8023-685-0.
  3. ↑ Including the area around town
  4. ↑ "2010 Census results Santo Antão". Instituto Nacional de Estatística Cabo Verde (in Portuguese). 23 March 2014.
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