ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that Luanda was an urban center established by the Portuguese, its development was also determined and influenced by the varied African and Atlantic contexts in which it was situated. Here the distinctive marks of European cities coexisted with other elements derived either from the African societies, with which it was in constant contact, or from Brazilian networks that stretched across the South Atlantic. Similar phenomena occurred in the city of Goa which, as capital of the Estado da Índia, sought to import the political and, above all, symbolic marks of the Asian royal courts that were both its partners and rivals. And on the other side of the Atlantic, the creation of Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro in the sixteenth century saw the rapid integration of elements drawn from the different indigenous cultures.
