Porto-Novo
— — Bahia, brought back across the sea.
Not only on a wall.
“The official capital of Benin, on a quiet lagoon about thirty kilometres east of Cotonou. Yoruba in language, Afro-Brazilian in much of its architecture. The candy-coloured Grand Mosque was built as a church by Bahian returnees in 1912 and converted in the 1930s. Royal palaces, painted shutters, and a slower pace than the country's larger port to the west.
Porto-Novo, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Porto-Novo is the constitutional capital of Benin, on the northern shore of the Porto-Novo Lagoon, about 30 kilometres east of the economic capital Cotonou and 10 kilometres from the Nigerian border. The city's population is around 264,000 (2013 estimate). The Portuguese named it 'new port' in the sixteenth century; the Yoruba kingdom that preceded them called it Hogbonu or Ajashe. France made it the capital of its Dahomey colony in 1900, and it has remained the seat of the National Assembly through independence in 1960 and the country's transition to multiparty rule in 1990.
The Afro-Brazilian quarter holds Porto-Novo's most distinctive buildings, raised by Aguda, descendants of formerly enslaved Yoruba who returned from Bahia, Brazil after the 1835 Malê Revolt. Their style carries pastel stucco, scrolled pediments, and louvred shutters along the streets behind the lagoon. The Grand Mosque, finished in 1912, was built as a Catholic church in baroque proportion and converted to a mosque in the 1930s; its pink, lime green, and ochre façade is the city's most photographed wall. The Royal Palace of King Toffa, now the Honmé Museum, dates from the late nineteenth century.
Porto-Novo sits 45 minutes by road from Cotonou's Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International Airport, the country's only international gateway. Most travellers base in Cotonou and day-trip in by shared car or zemidjan motorcycle taxi. The Honmé Museum and the Da Silva Museum of Afro-Brazilian heritage both keep weekday hours roughly 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a midday break. The dry season runs November through February. French is the working language; Yoruba, Fon, and Goun are widely spoken in the markets. Modest dress is appreciated around the mosque and palace courtyards.