Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market
On Gingerguide's self-guided Lagos audio tour, Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market is a stop worth about ~60 min. Stand in front of it, press play for a short narrated story, and put any follow-up question to the built-in AI guide.
- Type historic
- Suggested visit ~60 min
- Lagos Lagos guide
About Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market
The site of the first slave market in Europe, established in Lagos in 1444, where African captives brought back by Portuguese explorers were auctioned, a sobering and historically essential monument, now housing a museum on the transatlantic slave trade.
The Mercado de Escravos in Lagos is one of the most historically significant and sobering sites in Portugal, it was here, in 1444, that the first public sale of African enslaved people in Europe took place. The event was recorded by the chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara, who described how 235 people, brought from West Africa by the explorer Lançarote de Freitas, were publicly sold on the banks of the Lagos river. The original building where this occurred was a customs house (Casa da Alfândega), of which only a Gothic arcade survives. A museum opened on the site in 2016, dedicated to the history of the transatlantic slave trade and the role of Lagos and Portugal in the early development of the African slave trade. The museum addresses this dark history with historical honesty and critical reflection.
How much time do you need at Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market?
Around ~60 min works well for Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market — time to look properly and listen to its story on the spot. Linger if you like; nothing on a self-guided walk is on a clock.
Should you stop at Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market?
Yes — Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market made the cut as one of 12 places the Gingerguide team researched and narrated across Lagos. The story tells you why it is worth the stop, and the AI guide fills in anything you still wonder.
Nearby stops in Lagos
Hear the story of Mercado de Escravos: Slave Market
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