Porto-Novo - Capital City

The official capital of Benin, Porto-Novo delights with its unique blend of royal history and Afro-Brazilian heritage. The Honmè Museum, housed in the former palace of King Toffa, traces the life of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Hogbonou through more than 230 objects: musical instruments, ritual pottery, portable altars, and photographs of royal families. A few streets away, the Da Silva Museum, set up in an 1890 house that belonged to an Afro-Brazilian family, tells the story of the return to Benin of descendants of slaves freed from Latin America — a history also embodied by the Grande Mosquée of Brazilian style, built in the heart of the city's grand market. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Immaculée Conception and the Jardin des Plantes et de la Nature, the kingdom's former sacred forest, complete this green parenthesis in the heart of the urban center. A human-sized city, rich in stories and architectural surprises, to be discovered on foot along its alleys. Book your guided tour and let yourself be surprised by the many facets of the Beninese capital.