Editing Matadi (section)

==History==
[[File:108 Matadi. - Le marche.jpg|thumb|left|The market, 1899]]
Matadi was near the site of the state of [[Vungu]], which was first mentioned in 1535<ref>Afonso I to the Pope Paulo III, 21 February 1535 in Antonio Brasio, ed. ''Monumenta Missionaria Africana'' (15 vols, Lisbon 1952-88) 2:  38.</ref> and was said to be destroyed in 1624.

Matadi itself was founded by [[Sir Henry Morton Stanley]] in 1879. It was strategically important because it was the last navigable port going upstream on the [[Congo River]]; it became the furthest inland port in the [[Congo Free State]]. The construction of the [[Matadi–Kinshasa Railway]] (built between 1890 and 1898) made it possible to transport goods from deeper within Congo's interior to the port of Matadi, stimulating the city to become an important trading center. Portuguese and French West-African commercial interests influenced the city's architecture and urban design, which borrowed from the neighboring colonies in [[Angola]] and the [[Congo-Brazzaville]].<ref>History of architecture: city, architecture and
colonial space in Matadi and Lubumbashi, Sofie Boonen,  {{cite web |url=http://symposium.fea.ugent.be/sites/symposium.elis.ugent.be/files/phdsymposium/paper450abstract_42.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-07-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714203329/http://symposium.fea.ugent.be/sites/symposium.elis.ugent.be/files/phdsymposium/paper450abstract_42.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-14 }}</ref>