which are liable to be so protected, shall be covered by the provisions of the present Law.
4. Immovable cultural assets
“Immovable cultural assets” includes the following categories:
Monuments, complexes, locations or sites and natural features.
a) “Monuments” means, in particular, the following:
constructions and buildings at archaeological sites;
constructions and other works that are representative of precolonial societies, such as walled
enclosures, zimbabwes (stonewalled settlements), aringas (fortified enclosures), etc.;
works of art installed in public places or designed as part of urban settings;
buildings of historic value which bear witness to the fact that different cultures and civilizations have
lived together in our territorial space, such as Arab trading posts, Hindu temples, mosques, churches and
chapels, old fortresses and more recent defense works, public buildings and residences, from colonial
times and the era of the prazeiros [Portuguese or AfroPortuguese estate owners] and private trading
companies with a royal charter;
buildings of particular architectural interest.
b) “Complexes” means groups of buildings which, owing to their architecture, their homogeneity or the
way in which they fit into the landscape, are of particular historic, artistic or scientific interest. For the
purposes of this law the following shall be regarded as complexes:
ancient cities;
the ancient areas around the main cities;
other ancient urban nuclei such as Ibo and Mozambique Island.
c) “Locations or sites” means manmade works or works the result of a combination of nature and man’s
efforts and adjacent areas recognized as being of archaeological, historical, aesthetic, ethnological or
anthropological interest.
The following shall be regarded as locations or sites:
archaeological sites;
centers of power of precolonial societies, inter alia their capitals, main population centers and
places of worship;
mining centers;
sites where historically important events involving precolonial societies have been recorded, in
particular battlefields from the wars against colonization, sites of massacres and historic sites of the armed
struggle for national liberation;
sites marking the colonial occupation and exploitation of our country;
sites linked to the slave trade;
sites of ancient fairs or trading centers;
sites where objects of anthropological, archaeological or historical interest have been discovered.
d) “Natural features” means physical or biological formations of particular interest from an aesthetic or
scientific point of view, such as those located on Inhaca Island and in the Bazaruto Archipelago.
Natural features shall also include the following:
geological and physiographical formations and areas that constitute the habitat of endangered species
of animals and plants of outstanding value from the point of view of science or nature conservation;
defined areas recognized as being of value from the point of view of science or nature conservation,
in particular parks and reserves.