With the astonishing beauty of a place like Natal, Brazil, one cannot help but wonder what and how it was a long time ago. It is even already puzzling how and where the founders got the place’s name.

 

Natal lies on the right bank of a river called Potenji, just where it meets the Altlantic Ocean. Jeronimo de Albuquerque together with his fleet came to River Potenji on December 1597 with the intention of founding a new city and a fortress.

 

It was Jaunary 6, 1598 when they started to build the Fortress of Three Wise Kings. It was on Christmas of the following year that a village located a mile away from the fortress was founded. They then called it Natal which is the Portuguese equivalent for Christmas.

 

Different from all the other parts of Brazil, Natal remained to be much less of a colony. It is even proclaimed to be one Brazil’s most libertarian regions. In fact, it was the very first to take away slavery and it even happened a decade before all the other parts of the country were able to do so. Also one good thing to note is that the first Brazilian woman to become mayor was elected in a small city just near Natal.