Hotels in Luanda

Hotels in Luanda

If you like the idea of going to Luandam you may want to use a hotel in the city. Yopu may want a luxury or cheap hotel. You may want to go to the city to see the historic sites of the city and nation. You may be on business deal and need somewhere to stay while on this deal. You may just be doing a vacation there. Luanda (formerly called Loanda) is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and administrative base.

Luanda is divided into two parts, the Baixa de Luanda (lower Luanda, the old city) and the Cidade Alta (upper city or the new part). The Baixa de Luanda is situated next to the port, and has narrow streets and old colonial buildings. The inhabitants of Luanda are primarily members of African ethnic groups, including the Ovimbundu, Kimbundu and Bakongo tribes. The official and the most widely used language is Portuguese, although many Bantu-related indigenous languages are also used.

Quatro de Fevereiro Airport is located in Luanda, the capital city of Angola.

Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda in 1575 as São Paulo de Loanda, with a hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. In 1618 the Portuguese built the fortress called Fortaleza São Pedro da Barra, and in 1634 they built another fortress: Fortaleza de São Miguel. Luanda was Portuguese Angola's administrative centre from 1627, with one exception: the Dutch ruled Luanda from 1640 to 1648 as Fort Aardenburgh. The city served as the centre of a large slave trade to Brazil from c.1550 to 1836. The slave trade was conducted mostly with the Portuguese colony of Brazil; Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the ports of Luanda and Benguela. By this time, Angola, a Portuguese colony, was in fact like a colony of Brazil, paradoxically another Portuguese colony. A strong degree of Brazilian influence was noted in Luanda until the Independence of Brazil in 1822. In the 19th century, still under Portuguese rule, Luanda experienced a major economic revolution. The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844 Angola's ports were opened to foreign shipping. By 1850, Luanda was one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside Mainland Portugal, full of trading companies, exporting (together with Benguela) palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products. Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born by this time. In 1889 Governor Brito Capelo opened the gates of an aqueduct which supplied the city with water, a formerly scarce resource, laying the foundation for major growth. Like most of Angola, the city of Luanda was not affected by the Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974); economic growth and development in the entire region reached record highs during this period. In 1972 a report called Luanda the Paris of Africa.

By the time of Angolan independence in 1975, Luanda was a modern city and the majority of the city's population was of Portuguese origin. After independence, most of the Portuguese left, principally for Portugal, with many travelling overland to South Africa. There was an immediate crisis, because the local African population lacked the skills and knowledge needed to run the city and maintain its infrastructure. The large numbers of skilled technicians among the force of Cuban soldiers sent in to support the MPLA government in the Angolan Civil War (1975 – 2002) were able to make a valuable contribution to restoring and maintaining basic services in the city.

Luanda is a province of Angola. It has an area of 2,257 km² and a population of 1,823,282 in 2006. Luanda is the capital of the province and the country. Municipalities in Luanda Province include Cacuaco, Viana, Cazenga, Ingombota, Kilamba Kiaxe, Maianga, Rangel, Samba and Sambizanga.

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