Salvador: Bahia
T
HE FIRST EUROPEAN ships landed in Brazil in April 1500 at Porto Seguro in the south of Bahia and commander Pedro Àlvares Cabral claimed the land for Portugal. In 1549 the city of Salvador was founded on the triangular peninsula that separates the Baia
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de Todos os Santos (Bay of All Saints) from the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the oldest cities in Brazil and the New World and was the first colonial capital of Brazil, a position it held until succeeded by Rio de Janeiro 1763. For many years Salvador was the most important seaport in the southern
hemisphere and a major centre for the sugar industry and the slave trade. It was through the slave trade that the links between Africa developed as almost five million West African slaves arrived and Salvador is now the centre of Afro-Brazilian culture in Brazil. Estimates suggest that over
80% of the current population of Salvador has some trace of Black African ancestry. It is no surprise, therefore, that African influences can be found in the region’s cuisine, music, dance, dress, arts and crafts, and even religion. From Olodum to capoeira, Candomblé to the typical dress of the Baianas, the African cultural legacy is there to be discovered, explored and appreciated. The historical centre of Salvador still contains a wealth of Baroque colonial architecture dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. At its heart is the Pelourinho where colonial mansions and churches have been restored to their former glory. The entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The week long Carnival in Salvador rivals the one in Rio for sheer exuberance and numbers of participants. Salvador, like Rio, is a major tourist attraction in its own right, as well