Mercado Municipal, Colonial market in downtown Maputo, Mozambique.
Mercado Municipal is a covered market hall in Maputo with sections for fresh produce, seafood, spices, nuts, and local handicrafts arranged in organized stalls. The building is divided into different areas where hundreds of vendors display their goods daily.
The colonial administration commissioned the Portuguese firm David & Carvalho in 1900; architect Carlos Mendes (1869–1922) designed the hall, reportedly modelled on Hamburg's Alsterpavillon. It opened on 30 September 1903 as Mercado Municipal Vasco da Gama, with 18 stalls sold on 19 September: 6 butchers, 6 grocers, 3 fruit shops, 2 bakeries and a bar. The Vasco da Gama name was dropped after independence in 1975. A fire destroyed much of the building on 22 July 2005; mayor David Simango had it fully renovated, works finished in June 2014.
Locals call it "Bazar da Baixa", the downtown bazaar, a nickname that survived the 1975 independence, when the market dropped its colonial name Mercado Municipal Vasco da Gama. The 18 original stalls sold in 1903 were six butcheries, six grocers, three fruit shops, two bakeries and a bar. Today 534 individual sales points fill the hall, and the open ground north of the building was replaced by rows of kiosks after the 2014 works.
The market stands on Avenida 25 de Setembro, in the KaMpfumo district, a short walk from the port area. The 2014 renovation replaced the former open space north of the hall with rows of kiosks, and the hall now holds 534 individual sales points. A multi-storey car park built in 2008 partly blocks the view of the building from the street.
The 2008 multi-storey car park built beside the market blocked part of its visibility from the surrounding streets, a side effect of later development that visitors still notice. The building has been on Maputo's preliminary heritage list since 2011 and is recorded in Portugal's architectural heritage database under number 31703.
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