[2] The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was the first building on the site, whose construction began in 1535 at Coutinho's request.

A few years later, however, the Portuguese moved the headquarters to the village of Vitória, newly founded on an island opposite Vila Velha.

[1] In 1558, in the vicinity of the Church of the Rosary, Friar Pedro Palácios began the construction of the Penha Convent, which forms, along with the temple, the oldest group of buildings in the historic site.

[1][3] All the buildings from the colonial period, with the exception of the Church of the Rosary and the Penha Convent, were demolished at the beginning of the Republican era in a movement led by governors like Jerônimo Monteiro, who sought to modernize Brazilian cities in order to abandon the colonial and monarchist past.

The proposal, which had been discussed since the beginning of the century, initially included the construction of an amphitheater designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and an aquarium that would highlight examples of the region's marine flora and fauna.