Painted houses
Colonial streets.
Maria Lucia P. Sampaio — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Damien Mathews - User: (WT-shared) Dammat89 at wts wikivoyage — CC BY 1.0 · Maria Lucia P. Sampaio — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Maria Lucia P. Sampaio — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rosicler Ceschin — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Osvaldo Tetaze Maia — CC BY-SA 4.0
São Francisco do Sul is the oldest town in Santa Catarina and is counted as the third oldest in Brazil: according to some historians the French navigator Binot Paulmier de Gonneville reached the island on 4 January 1504, and Portuguese settlers led by Manuel Lourenço de Andrade arrived in 1658. Its historic centre, protected as national heritage, lines the shore of Babitonga Bay: brightly painted colonial and nineteenth-century houses with iron balconies and tall wooden doors, and stone-paved lanes running down to the waterfront and the old harbour. In recognition of its age, the state government symbolically moves to the town for twenty-four hours every 11 August. The quarter is best enjoyed on foot in the morning or towards sunset, finishing along the bayside promenade with its boats and fishermen.
Colonial streets.
On Babitonga Bay.
Symbolic capital day.
Town centre on Babitonga Bay, São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina
It is counted as the country's third oldest and the oldest in Santa Catarina.