Stone Town () is a town situated towards the northern end of the

Island of Mozambique The Island of Mozambique () lies off northern Mozambique, between the Mozambique Channel and Mossuril Bay, and is part of Nampula Province. Prior to 1898, it was the capital of colonial Portuguese East Africa. With its rich history and sandy b ...

. Pottery found on Mozambique Island indicates that the original town was founded no later than the fourteenth century. According to tradition, the original

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

population came from Kilwa. The town's rulers had links with the rulers of both

Angoche Angoche is a district, city and municipality located in Nampula Province in north-eastern Mozambique. The district has limits in the North with Mogincual District, in the South with Larde District, to the east with the Indian Ocean and to the west ...

and

Quelimane Quelimane () is a seaport in Mozambique. It is the administrative Capital (political), capital of the Zambezia Province and the province's largest city, and stands from the mouth of the Rio dos Bons Sinais (or "River of the Good Signs"). The riv ...

by the fifteenth century. In 1514,

Duarte Barbosa Duarte Barbosa (c. 14801 May 1521) was a Portuguese writer and officer from Portuguese India (between 1500 and 1516). He was a scrivener in a '' feitoria'' in Kochi, and an interpreter of the local language, Malayalam. Barbosa wrote the ''Book o ...

noted that the town had a Muslim population and that they spoke the same Swahili dialect as Angoche. Portugal established a trading fort in 1507. It was an important staging post on the maritime journey between

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Portuguese settlement (later known as Stone Town) was the capital of

Portuguese East Africa Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

, a distinction it held until 1898, when Lourenço Marques (now

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

) became the capital. Within Stone Town, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte and the Fort São Sebastião are two notable old buildings. Between 2010 and 2015, Stone Town's neglected buildings and faded grandeur had been turned around with infrastructure improvements and building restorations.

References

External links

Condé Nast Traveller - Stone Town, Mozambique
Populated places in Nampula Province Populated places established in 1507 {{Mozambique-geo-stub