The late 17th-cen­­tu­ry core of this his­toric town, found­ed by the French and occu­pied by the Dutch before com­ing under Por­tuguese rule, has pre­served the orig­i­nal rec­tan­gu­lar street plan in its entire­ty. Thanks to a peri­od of eco­nom­ic stag­na­tion in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, an excep­tion­al num­ber of fine his­toric build­ings have sur­vived, mak­ing this an out­stand­ing exam­ple of an Iber­ian colo­nial town.