Because of its historical Centre's fine XVIIIth and XIXth architecture and town planning, the city of Sao Luís in the State of Maranhao was listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1997. But before São Luis came to be known as a Portuguese city in the Tropics, the French had founded it in 1612, under La Ravardière. And for three years the city was the dream capital of a Utopia conceived in Louis XIII's France. Indeed it was along the coast of Brazil that the French monarchy aspired to create a South American overseas Empire - Equinoctial France - which would parallel Nouvelle France in North America with its capital city of Québec founded by Champlain. Nowadays São Luis reasserts this heritage with the ambition of becoming a crossroads of world cultures.
São Luís do Maranhão; Equinoctial France; La Ravardière; Louis XIII; Unesco World Heritage