Travel Guide Lubango

Nossa Senhora do Monte, patron of the city, watches Lubango built in a valley of the central plateau at 1 760 meters above sea level, making it one of the highest Angolan cities identified by the Cordillera of Chela, several hundred metres higher. The same cordillera would have inspired the construction of Cristo Rei with the founding community of Lubango (ex-Sá da Bandeira), mainly from Madeira Island. Perched at 2 130 m high and 14 metres high, this statue is visible from all areas of this great and dynamic provincial capital. The first settlers arrived from South Africa in the 1880 s. A few hundred Boer, after a very long trip to the horse tanks from south to north, settled in the fertile plain of Humpata situated near 2 000 m altitude on the western edge of the central plateau to the south of Lubango. The Madeirenses arrived approximately during the same period and founded Sá da Bandeira in 1885. The first European penetration in this region dates back to the th century and the installation of the first traders from the th century. Lubango is the only city of all colonial Angola whose population is a European majority. Indeed, the Mumuilas, the bantouphone bantouphone group of Nhaneka-Humbe, semi-nomads, then refuse to live in town. They have since given their names to Huila Province. The Nhaneka-Humbe and thus the Mumuilas exist only on Angolan territory. Mumuilas women are famous especially for their very peculiar hats. They become a "tourist curiosity" and "pose" (against financial compensation) alongside the visitors of passage. Several of them are present in the gardens of the Grand Praça Agostinho Neto (formerly Praça da República). No ethical charter of the traveller, or other code of conduct, is yet established…The architecture and town planning of the city centre still reflect the image of Portuguese society with very beautiful examples preserved and well-renovated in urban and administrative buildings of colonial times. The industrial school where the generations of Angolans have been trained, especially now renovated in secondary school of the first cycle, is emblematic of the city. Lubango also offers magnificent examples of modernist architecture with a number of special houses of the 1960 s still visible.The very large agri-trade fair that takes place every year in August (in 2014, from 13 to 16 August) recalls the past, and the present, agriculture of this fertile region. Several tens of thousands of worshippers also celebrate every year at 15 August Nossa Senhora do Monte. During the last week of August, the fans of speed (and noise) appreciate the Automobile Automobile Grand Prix.