Pop-up cards: buildings in Luanda
Luanda is the capital of Angola, where in 1575 the Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais led 100 families of settlers and 400 soldiers to settle on what is now the island of Luanda (named the island, but at least now a peninsula). It was founded in January of the following year as 'São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda’.
However, Novais was not the first Portuguese to reach here, and there were apparently Portuguese living in the village there when he arrived.
Novais built the fortress of São Miguel in 1576.
Luanda was occupied by the Dutch from 1640-48. Except for that period, it worked as the centre of the Portuguese slave trade.
I selected the models of the pop-up cards from the buildings in Luanda.
The first is the Church of Our Lady of the Cape (Portuguese: Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Cabo). This is said to be the oldest church in Luanda. I think the church may have been founded by the colonists led by Novais, but I am not sure as it is said that it may have been founded by the Portuguese who had settled there before that.
The present building of the church was built in 1649, which means that it was rebuilt immediately after the recapture of the Dutch occupation (1648).
Second, Luanda Cathedral.
As it only became a cathedral in the 18th century, its original name was Church of Our Lady of Remedies (Portuguese: Igreja da Nossa Senhora dos Remédios), and construction began in 1655 (one theory says 1651) and was completed in 1679.
Wikipedia and some websites says that 'it fell into ruins in 1877’. If it had been abandoned and deserted, I don’t think they would have pinpointed the year, so I imagine there was a war or some other incident, but I couldn’t find an explanation.
Anyway, it was restored between 1880 and 1900, giving it its present appearance.
This time, the pattern of Luanda Cathedral is downloadable.
The octagonal pattern on the ground in front of the church represents the planting enclosure in the garden in front of the church, and the squares represent the fence posts.But I guess that these are much newer than the church building.
Please take care when applying the glue, the glue could stick out through the cut-out holes and stain the edges. You won’t have to cut it if you don’t need to.
I think the cut-outs are fine and a little tedious, but folding them is not so difficult. Please use it if you like.