soldiers and many Indians, set off to explore the upper reaches of the Amazon. They eventually found a Tupuliçus Indian settlement near the mouth of the Tapajós River and made port there. The Indians had already had contact with Europeans, mainly Spanish explorers who had been to the settlement. The Portuguese and Tupuliçus started trading. Pedro Teixeira resumed his exploration. The Jesuits took on the work of founding a village for missionary purposes on the site, where Father António Vieira was known to have visited in 1659. Santarém was founded by Father João Felipe Bettendorff on 22 June 1661 with the name "Aldeia do Tapajós" (Tapajós village). Father Bettendorff built the Chapel of Our Lady of Conception. The site where the first mass was celebrated in the city is now marked by a monument. The Jesuits founded other villages nearby, including the Village of Borsari, known today as the Village of Alter do Chão, Pará. After development from the missionaries, Francisco da Mota Falcão started construction of a fortress by the river in 1693, which was finished by his son, Manoel Mota Siqueira in 1697. The building had a square shape and featured bastions on each corner. The Fortress of Tapajós was the nucleus of the village that developed as the city of Santarém. In 1758, the village of Tapajós was given the status of Vila and the name of Santarém, after a portuguese city with the same name, and later was elevated to the category of city in October 24, 1848 by provincial law nº 145. Over the centuries, the government tried to renovate the fortress were made, the last being in 1867, when the government sent six cannons to arm it. The renovation was never finished and the cannons were left in the street. Today not much remains of the fortress, as materials were taken for other building projects. In 1900 a high school was built on the site. Early in the first decade of the 21st century, "Praça Mirante do the Tapajós", a tourist attraction, was built behind the school. Two of the cannons from the fortress have been installed at the city's airport, where they can be seen from the passenger terminal; two others are located in the Centenário Square, and two in the SUDAM Campus of the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA) Geography Santarém is bordered by the Amazon and the Tapajós rivers. Both