Luanda founded
1575 CE.
Shown on the map at -8.838°, 13.234°.
Luanda is the capital and largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport, and also the capital of the Luanda Province. Luanda and its metropolitan area is the most populous Portuguese-speaking national capital in the world and the most populous Lusophone city outside Brazil. In 2024 the population reached more than 8.8 million inhabitants (a third of Angola's population). Among the oldest colonial cities of Africa, Luanda was founded in January 1576 as São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda by Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais, being occasionally called "Leonda" or "St Paul de Leonda" by non-Portuguese sources. The city served as the centre of the slave trade to Brazil before the institution was prohibited. At the start of the Angolan Civil War in 1975, most of the white Portuguese left as refugees, principally migrating to Portugal. Luanda's population increased greatly from internal refugees fleeing the war, but its infrastructure was inadequate to handle the increase.
Text from the Wikipedia article Luanda, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.