Santo
Amaro da Barra Grande (1583) unlike the other fortresses wasn't
only a bastion against the foreign enemies. It was, above all,
a warning symbol of the incontestable dominion of Felipe of Spain
to São Vicente inhabitants and to the restoration of the
portuguese throne. In a paradox, part of this military personnel
would be integrated to the local society like the cases of the
commander of the fortress and the Sevilha citizen Bartolomeu Bueno.
The commandant Miranda got married with captain Jeronimo Leitão'
s daughter and, Bartolomeu Bueno was patriarch of a bandeirantes
(member of expeditions called Bandeiras) family like his sons
Jeronimo and Amador Bueno.
This
fortress also have historical relationship with the most important
existing fortifications in the world: the Havana's defensive system,
Cartagena's battlement and the fortresses from San Filipe, and
from Alicante, in Spain, were projected by the same architect
Juan Bautista Antonelli, that worked here under the rules of Felipe
II.