São Francisco do Conde

History

This town was built on land granted to Fernão Rodrigues Castello Branco in 1559, who donated his property in the following year to Francisco de Sá, the son of the third Governor General, who built the Real de Sergipe sugar plantation in 1563. The Count of Linhares ordered the construction of a convent and church on a hilltop in the Bahian Recôncavo in 1618. The region was only settled by the Portuguese after wars with native people of the Paraguaçu and Jaguaribe rivers. Slavery existed in São Francisco do Conde as early as 1563. It later became the city of San Francisco do Conde. The city was named for the Count of Linhares, who inherited the land of the 3rd General Governor of Brazil, Mem de Sá (c. 1500 – 2 March 1572). His widow donated the plantations and land to Jesuit colleges in Lisbon and Salvador; the land and property were seized and sold by the Portuguese government during the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil in 1759. Gaspar Pinto dos Reis and his wife donated land near the town center to the Franciscans 1629. They built a large-scale house and chapel on the site, which became the Church and Convent of Saint Antony and Chapel of the Third Order. São Francisco do Conde was originally divided into approximately 20 freguesas; by the mid-18th century they were consolidated into three: São Gonçalo, the seat of the town; Nossa Senhora do Monte; and Nossa Senhora do Socorro. Numerous colonial-period buildings and ruins of the plantations remain in municipalities.