Bolama

Bolama was chosen as the capital of Portuguese Guinea in 1895 for its deep natural harbour and strategic position in the Bijagós Archipelago, a decision that left the island with a concentration of European administrative buildings, churches and military infrastructure that still define its character more than a century later.

The old Portuguese administrative quarter occupies the island's highest point, a plateau of laterite rock where the Governor's Palace, the cathedral of Nossa Senhora da Luz, the military barracks and a circular market building form a grid of European urban plan laid out in the middle of the tropics.

What makes Bolama extraordinary is the degree to which the tropical climate has reclaimed the built environment: fig trees split the walls of the cathedral, tropical forest has overtaken the market building's roof, and the Governor's Palace sits behind overgrown gardens with no obvious entrance, its painted ceilings and carved stonework hidden under a century of vegetation.

The circular market is the most photogenic of Bolama's ruins, its domed roof now open to the sky and its walls wrapped in strangling figs, but what it once held was a European vision of tropical commerce that has been entirely superseded by the living markets of Bissau.

The island's population of about 6,000 lives primarily from fishing and small-scale agriculture, and the contrast between the scale of the former colonial capital with its wide avenues and large buildings and the modest life of the present fishing village is the central experience of a visit to Bolama.

The deep natural harbour that attracted the Portuguese to choose Bolama as their capital in 1895 remains one of the finest in West Africa, a fact that has drawn periodic proposals to redevelop the island as a commercial port, none of which have yet overcome the logistical and financial barriers that the island's isolation creates.

The circular market building, known locally as the Mercado de Bolama, was designed in the Portuguese Art Deco style that was popular in the 1930s and represents one of the earliest examples of this architectural movement in West Africa, its plan and ornamentation quite distinct from the vernacular architecture that surrounds it.

The cathedral of Nossa Senhora da Luz was consecrated in 1910 and its painted ceiling, depicting tropical birds and flowering plants in a naive but charming style, was completed by an unknown artist working in the tradition of Portuguese colonial church decoration, its condition now deteriorating rapidly as the roof has partially collapsed.

Bolama's designation as a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site reflects its potential significance as an example of early twentieth-century Portuguese colonial urban planning, and the fact that it has not yet been inscribed is partly due to the challenges of managing a site whose most important buildings are in advanced states of structural collapse.

Bolama offers the most concentrated and visually dramatic example of Portuguese colonial architecture in Guinea-Bissau, preserved in a state of romantic decay that attracts photographers and historians from across West Africa.

The island's history as the original capital of Portuguese Guinea provides a window into the colonial period that shaped the entire country, and the ongoing debate about whether to restore or preserve the ruins makes it a site of active cultural conversation.

The island is reached by a full-day boat crossing from Bissau, making it the most remote of Guinea-Bissau's accessible tourist destinations and one that rewards those who make the effort with an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in the country.