Due to its location, this archipelago was perhaps one of the first places discovered by European navigators in the Southern Hemisphere.
The archipelago already appeared under the name of Sao Joao da Quaresma (Saint John of Lent) on the oldest map of Brazil, the Cantino planisphere from the year 1502.
The first man whose landing on the islands has been documented was Américo Vespucio, in the year 1503.
The following year, the archipelago was donated to the hidalgo Fernando de Noroña, who financed Vespucio's expedition. The archipelago was besieged by the French and English for more than a century, until it passed into Dutch hands in 1629. In 1654, the Dutch lost Pernambuco to Portugal, and Fernando de Noroña became a Portuguese domain.
With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in the 18th century, the archipelago began to be populated, and Vila dos Remédios (Village of Remedies) stands out, whose fortress began to be built in 1737, and was completed 41 years later. .
Vila dos Remédios from the beginning was considered a correctional facility, where common prisoners arrived from Pernambuco. The common prison of Fernando de Noroña functioned for 201 years.
In the year 1832, Charles Darwin visited the archipelago with his famous expedition aboard the HMS Beagle.
Due to its strategic location, it was a stopover for several activities.
In 1898, it served as a stopover between Brazil and Africa for the laying of the transoceanic telegraph cable.
Between 1927 and 1934, it supported the crossings of the hydroplanes of Aéropostàle, the French airline.
In World War II, in 1938, the common prison was transformed into a political prison. Fernando de Noroña served until the end of the war as Brazil's main military base in the Atlantic Ocean.
The war completely transformed the largest island, since the buildings were renovated to house the three thousand soldiers stationed there, a second landing strip was built, a hospital, an electric power plant, a new dock and a cinema were built. outdoor.
At the end of the war, the civilian population began to increase gradually, and infrastructure development was revived.
In 1988, it was reintegrated into the state of Pernambuco, and began its deployment as a tourist and recreation center.
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