Mauritsstad

Mauritsstad (or Mauritius) was the capital of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas ...

, and is now a part of the Brazilian city of

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

. The city was built on the island of Antonio Vaz opposite Recife, and designed by architect

Pieter Post Pieter Post in 1651. Portrait by Pieter Nolpe, detail of a larger work Pieter Jansz Post (1 May 1608 – buried 8 May 1669) was a Dutch Golden Age architect, painter and printmaker. Biography Post was baptised in Haarlem, the son of a ...

. It was named after Governor

Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen John Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: ''Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen''; German: ''Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen''; Portuguese: ''João Maurício de Nassau-Siegen''; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period a ...

, who had founded the city and the adjoining palace Vrijburgh. Mauritsstad was the cultural center of the New World, with the first botanical garden and the first zoo in America, and a museum with three hundred stuffed monkeys. The city's Jewish population constructed the first synagogue in the Americas. The city was eventually recaptured by the Portuguese in 1654. Dutch Brazil Historic Jewish communities History of Recife Geography of Pernambuco Former colonial capitals Jews and Judaism in Recife Populated places established by the Dutch West India Company {{Pernambuco-geo-stub