Recife Antigo

This historic area has been recently recovered and now holds several clubs, bars and a high-tech center called Porto Digital.

Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen became Governor-General of the Dutch colony and built a new town on a neighboring island.

This city was named Mauritsstadt and the Palácio do Campo das Princesas, seat of the State of Pernambuco government, is built on its ruins.

[1] The Dutch were forced out in 1654 of a Recife with good infrastructure, for they had built canals and improved the port and the defenses of it.

Thus, a group of 24 Portuguese Jews who had previously migrated from Portugal to the Netherlands because of antisemitism, headed farther North with the Dutch, where New Amsterdam—present-day Manhattan—was founded.