Outeiro de Santa Catarina, Heritage hill in Santos Center, Brazil.

Outeiro de Santa Catarina is the rocky remnant of the hill where Santos began, now topped by a castle-like house built for the Italian physician João Éboli around 1900 to a design by Frederico Gambara. The building rises in three levels linked by staircases, following the slope of the rock, and its pointed-arch doors and windows, battlements and merlons give it the look of a medieval castle, possibly inspired by the architecture of Éboli's native Italy.

Luís de Góis and his wife Catarina de Aguillar built the first chapel to Saint Catherine of Alexandria at the foot of the hill in the 16th century; by 1543 the first Santa Casa stood beside it. The English corsair Thomas Cavendish sacked the town in 1591 and the chapel was destroyed. The second chapel, rebuilt on the summit, was demolished between 1880 and 1884, and the Italian physician João Éboli built his castle-like house on the remaining rock in 1900.

The hill is the founding site of Santos: the first chapel to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, built by Luís de Góis and Catarina de Aguillar, stood at its base, and the first Santa Casa hospital operated beside it from 1543. The image of the saint, thrown into the sea by Thomas Cavendish in 1591, was recovered by enslaved people in 1663 and is now in the Museum of Sacred Art.

The building sits on the rock that remains of the hill, at the site where Brás Cubas is said to have laid the foundations of the settlement in 1543. Its three levels are linked by staircases cut to fit the slope, so visiting means climbing steps. The hill was cut down over the years, its stone used to pave the city streets.

A 1902 plaque on the remaining rock states that Brás Cubas laid the foundations of the settlement here and founded the Hospital de Misericórdia in 1543. The image of Saint Catherine, thrown into the sea by Cavendish in 1591, was recovered in 1663 and is now kept in the Museum of Sacred Art.