Salvador

Salvador sits at the tip of a hilly peninsula wedged between the Bay of All Saints and the Atlantic Ocean, in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. The city known as Roma Negra (Black Rome) is one of the oldest in the Americas, having served as the first capital of Colonial Brazil for two centuries, and it was an early center of the colony’s foremost commodities: sugarcane and enslaved Africans. More than 1.3 million enslaved men, women, and children passed through its port, and they and their descendants have left an indelible mark on the city, reflected today in its music, cuisine, and architecture.

Largo do Pelourinho

Pelourinho

Salvador’s historic core centers around the Pelourinho, whose very name reflects its dark history of enslavement: it derives from the whipping post (“pillory”) in its main square, where slaves were publicly beaten over alleged transgressions. Today, the area is known for its picturesque streets lined with brightly-colored houses and Renaissance-era colonial monuments, which together tell a story of the development of not only Salvador but of Brazil as a whole.

Start your walk at the northern edge of the historic center, at the Largo de Santo Antônio. Here you will find the Forte de Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century to protect against incursions by the Dutch, who sought to colonize the northeast of Brazil for themselves. From here, stroll down the Rua Direita de Santo Antônio, admiring the bright houses and peeking in the eclectic shops along the way. Farther down, you will see two monumental churches, Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo de Salvador and Igreja do Santíssimo Sacramento do Passo, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively.

Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos

Continue down the hill and you will find yourself at the base of another hill, looking up at the Largo do Pelourinho, the central square that was home to the colonial-era whipping post. On your left, you can’t miss the bright-blue Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos, a massive church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People. In colonial Salvador, slaves and freedmen founded irmandades (brotherhoods) that functioned as social organizations and societies of mutual aid; one such group set about raising money to build a church where black people could worship freely, rather than being relegated to the side altar at the larger white churches. Completed in 1709, the construction of the church took nearly 100 years, owing to the fact that it was built by slaves and freedmen alike only during their ‘free’ hours.

Convento e Igreja de São Francisco

You are now in the heart of the Pelourinho; continue walking up the hill and take time to admire the sights around you. Be sure to check out the Convento e Igreja de São Francisco, famous for its ornate decoration and large collection of azulejos (Portuguese painted tiles), and the Terreiro de Jesus, the central plaza of the colonial cidade alta (upper town) that was renovated in the 20th century by famed landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Continue through the Praça da Sé toward the Praça Municipal, which can be considered the birthplace of Brazil: it was this square that Tomé de Sousa cut out of the thick tropical forest when he declared Salvador the capital of the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Today, the square houses the Palácio Rio Branco, built by Sousa in 1549 but significantly renovated in the early 20th century, and the Elevador Lacerda, opened in the 1870s to connect the cidade alta with the cidade baixa below. If you fancy a ride, you can check out the Mercado Modelo opposite the base of the elevator.

Barra

When the inevitable urge for a beach break hits, look no further than Barra, an upscale neighborhood located at the far southwest corner of the peninsula.

Praia do Porto da Barra

The Praia do Porto da Barra is undoubtedly the city’s best beach, and it is inextricably tied to the city’s history: it was here that Tomé de Sousa landed with his ships and established the first European settlement in the area, while, centuries later, the beach was a favorite haunt of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and other tropicália musicians of the 1960s. Take a dip in the always-warm water and enjoy the beautiful view down the beach towards the Farol da Barra, a lighthouse built in the center of the 17th-century Forte de Santo Antônio da Barra that guards the entrance to the bay from the Atlantic. If you stick around long enough, the hill next to the lighthouse is a popular spot to watch the sunset––Salvador is one of the few places in Brazil where you can witness the sun setting over the water.

Farol da Barra

Pro tip: On a hot day, one of the most refreshing treats is a nice cold bowl of açaí. Stop at Açaí do Monstro Barra and serve yourself a bowl with toppings to enjoy on the beach.

Rio Vermelho

Rio Vermelho is often considered Salvador’s bohemian neighborhood, having been home to numerous artists like Veloso, Gil, and the modernist writer Jorge Amado, whose lovely house, A Casa do Rio Vermelho, is now a museum. Today, the area is full of life with bars and restaurants, and is a good area to stay in if you are looking for nightlife.

Food

Moqueca at Cadê Q’Chama?

Salvador’s cuisine is widely regarded throughout the country, mixing African cooking techniques and ingredients with those brought by the Portuguese colonists. The seafood-based food is much spicier than what is found in the rest of Brazil––when the waiter passes you the molho picante (spicy sauce), proceed with caution––while its unique flavor is owing to its liberal use of azeite de dendê,  oil from a specific species of palm tree brought to Brazil in colonial times from West Africa.

Salvador’s most famous dish (and one of Brazil’s as a whole) is the moqueca, a seafood stew made with fish or shrimp with tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, lime, coriander, coconut milk, and the obligatory dendê oil. Portions are hefty and are always cooked and served in a clay pot––used to retain the heat––alongside rice and farofa (toasted cassava flour). You can find a good one at Cadê Q’Chama? in the Pelourinho or Restaurante Casa de Tereza in Rio Vermelho. I also recommend trying the dish’s cousin, bobó de camarão.

Another iconic food is the acarajé, a type of street food also common in West Africa consisting of a black-eyed pea fritter deep-fried in dendê oil. In the Bahian version, the fritter is split open and the middle is filled with vatapá and caruru––pastes made from shrimp, ground nuts, and dendê oil, among other ingredients––and an optional topping of shrimp. It is traditionally prepared at stalls on the street by women known as baianas, clad in white cotton dresses and headscarves. You can find stands all over the city, but two of the most famous are in Rio Vermelho: Acarajé da Dinha and Acarajé da Regina.

Music

Bahia has long been home to a vibrant music scene, rooted in its African heritage. The city comes alive the most during Carnaval––its celebration is second-only to Rio’s in terms of size, with over 4 million attendees––but music is never hard to find in Salvador. The streets of the Pelourinho often play host to drum performances, but I highly recommend visiting the Balé Folclórico da Bahia for an unforgettable music and dance performance. The company showcases Bahian folklore as well as the traditions of Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian religion forged among the slaves of Bahia that combines the beliefs of the Yoruba, Bantu, and Gbe peoples of West Africa with elements of Catholicism. The performance begins with a reenactment of the creation of the world by the orixás, the divine spirits of Yoruba religion, followed by dances originating from the fishermen on the shores of Bahia to the slaves in the senzalas (quarters) of the sugar plantations––most famous among them is capoeira, in reality a martial art (outlawed in 19th century Brazil) that mixes elements of music, dance, acrobatics, and spirituality. The musicians are every bit as impressive as the dancers, accompanying the whole spectacle with stirring vocals, rousing percussion, and traditional instruments like the berimbau, a bowed string instrument originally from Angola.

The Balé Folclórico is simply a can’t-miss, and it will provide you with the necessary context through which to view the Afro-Brazilian elements of the city as a whole. Performances are held in the Theatro Miguel Santana in the Pelourinho; check their website for the showtimes. Tickets can be difficult to get day-of, so be sure to pass by the theater a couple of days in advance to get yours.

But Salvador isn’t only a place for traditional centuries-old music; it is also home to many of the most popular Brazilian musicians of the last several decades, from the cutting-edge tropicalistas of the 1960s like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Gal Costa to the MPB (música popular brasileira) rockers Novos Baianos. The city’s live music scene is a central part of the nightlife, with numerous performers to be found in bars in Rio Vermelho and on the streets as well.