São Francisco Square
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How it came to be
São Cristóvão in Sergipe, northeastern Brazil, was founded in January 1590, when Portugal and Spain shared one crown, from 1580 to 1640. The Portuguese sent Cristóvão de Barros to bring the region under colonial rule and establish a safe port between Salvador and Pernambuco. The town was divided into an upper town on a hill and a lower town with the port and the houses of ordinary people.
São Francisco Square became the focus of the upper town, with the colonial civil, military and religious institutions around it. During the Dutch invasion of the 1630s the town and the buildings around the square were destroyed, and the Dutch were expelled from Sergipe in 1645. Construction of the Church and Convent of São Francisco, funded by donations from the community, began in 1693. The Misericórdia church and hospital, the Provincial Palace and houses of the 18th and 19th centuries also line the square.
São Cristóvão was the capital of Sergipe until 1855, when the capital moved to coastal Aracaju and the town slowly declined. In 1967 Brazil's heritage institute IPHAN listed the town as a national monument. On 1 August 2010, at the 34th session of the World Heritage Committee in Brasília, the square was inscribed as a World Heritage site.
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