Fernando de Noronha

The island of Fernando de Noronha is about 32 kilometers in circumference. Its surface is rugged, with rocky hills from 150 to 220 meters in height and a mountainous peak rising 300 meters above sea level.

Amerigo Vespucci discovered the archipelago in 1503, during the course of a voyage to Brazil financed by Fernão de Loronha, a Portuguese nobleman.

Four years later, the Portuguese king Don Manuel I bestowed hereditary title of the islands on Fernão de Loronha, from whom the name of the archipelago is derived.

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch occupied the island, before being seized by the French East India Company.

In 1737, the Portuguese expelled the French and fortified the island. One fort, grandly styled el Forte de nossa Senhora dos Rem'dios, was also used to house criminals and political prisoners.