São Domingos, Cape Verde (municipality)

São Domingos
Municipality
Main street of São Domingos
Coordinates: 15°01′N 23°31′W / 15.02°N 23.52°W / 15.02; -23.52Coordinates: 15°01′N 23°31′W / 15.02°N 23.52°W / 15.02; -23.52
Country	Cape Verde
Island	Santiago
Area
• Total	147.5 km2 (57.0 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Total	13,699
• Density	93/km2 (240/sq mi)

São Domingos is a concelho (municipality) of Cape Verde. It is situated in the southeastern part of the island of Santiago. Its seat is the town São Domingos. Its population was 13,699 at the 2010 census.

The two major settlements in the concelho are São Domingos and Praia Baixo, São Domingos (population about 3,000) being the largest settlement in the area. Smaller settlements in the area include Água do Gato, Achada Banana and Rui Vaz, which is situated on the edge of a 1 km high cliff overlooking Ribeirão Galinha. While Rui Vaz and Praia Baixo are the main tourist draws in the area, tourism does not constitute a major factor in the region’s overwhelmingly agrarian economy.

Farmlands cover the eastern and the central parts, where runoff from the center of the island allows a higher water table and loamier soils than the dense clays found on most of the island.

Mountains dominate the western border, where the steep relief and lack of rainwater runoff makes large-scale agriculture impractical. Several dozen subsistence farming villages dot the main road leading towards Assomada, but produce negligible agricultural products for export.

The municipality consists of two parishes:

The São Domingos municipality was created in 1988, when two parishes of the older Municipality of Praia were separated to become the Municipality of São Domingos. It was formed primarily to relieve Praia of the administrative difficulties involved in managing both a large capital city (Praia) in addition to agrarian villages. It was the first municipality created after the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. Three years later the next municipality would be created on the same island.

In 2008, construction of the House of Marine and Sea Turtles began in Praia Baixo in São Domingos for the protection of sea turtles on the island, it was funded by the University of Algarve, Lisbon Oceanographic Institute and the local office of Lagoa near Faro, Portugal, it was completed in 2009.