Imagine something that comes into your eyes, every day, and without asking permission, there it is, being the focus of your gaze. That thing remains there, eternally. But if it doesn't change at all, our gaze needs a new perspective.

The invitation from MZNews is to (re)see some of the corners of Maputo, which never changed its curves and won't change them anytime soon, maybe forever!

The reader is taken for a walk through a bank of images that we captured as part of the celebration of the 134th anniversary of the elevation of "Lourenço Marques," today Maputo, to the category of city, on November 10, 1887.

This is Independence Square in downtown Maputo. This is where Samora Moisés Machel (1933-1986) was sworn in as the nation's highest magistrate and held the most fervent rallies.

In colonial times, here was a statue of Mouzinho de Albuquerque (who was also the name of this square), the Royal Commissioner of Mozambique between 1896 and 1898, riding a horse. The monument was removed from the site in the first half of 1975, following the country's independence. As of 2011, an iconic and imposing bronze statue of the first President of independent Mozambique, Samora Moisés Machel, stood in the same place. It is about nine meters high, on a 2.7-meter concrete base, and is one of the largest in southern Africa.

Still in the same square is the "Sé Catedral de Maputo". Its name is in quotes because officially it is called the Metropolitan Cathedral of Nossa Senhora da Conceição. Its construction began in 1936, under the responsibility of engineer Marcial Freitas e Costa, and it was inaugurated in 1944.

The building of religious worship and tourist attraction received the first apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II (September 16-19, 1988), whose armchair where he sat still remains well preserved inside the Cathedral, and can be seen whenever the doors were open. Years later it received the second apostolic visit of Holy Father Francis, from September 4 to 6, 2019.

Inside, behind the altar, lie the remains of Mozambique's first Catholic priest and cardinal, Dom Alexandre dos Santos, who lost his life on September 29, 2021, at the age of 103.

We stayed in the downtown area of the city. Right next to the Maputo Cathedral and Independence Square, just behind the City Council building, where we find the People's Market. We stayed outside to appreciate a mural that unites cold and warm colors.

Before it was just a sad wall, aged by wind and dust, which was occasionally bathed by the falling water of the rain. But today, our eyes shine before a mixed geometry that records implicit messages that extol the best of the city of Maputo.

The initiative that boasts the multicultures of the country, came from a group of young people led by Sebastião Coana, with the support of the Municipality of Maputo. So, if we travel a little more than one kilometer, further east of downtown, we find the barriers of Maputo. In them, the staircase, - here known as "Maxaquene stairs" - which makes the link between the downtown area and the area of Polana Cimento "A" (Museum), also benefited from new colors and became an attractive place to record memories, because the young people brought the rainbow to our feet.

Finally, we can spend hours and hours gazing at the Mural of Tiles on the Marginal of Maputo, in front of the Naval Club. An initiative of the renowned artist Naguib.

The mural entitled "Ode to Samora Machel" depicts the "woman" from different perspectives, along about 700 meters.

Maputo is Maningue Nice and has a lot more to explore...