Salvador, Bahia, Northeast Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Salvador, also known as São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, is the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognised throughout the country and internationally for its cuisine, music and architecture. The African influence in many cultural aspects of the city makes it a centre of Afro-Brazilian culture. As the first capital of Colonial Brazil, the city is one of the oldest in the Americas and one of the first planned cities in the world, having been established during the Renaissance period. Its foundation in 1549 by Tomé de Sousa took place on account of the implementation of the General Government of Brazil by the Portuguese Empire.

Centralization as a capital, along with Portuguese colonization, were important factors in shaping the profile of the municipality, as were certain geographic characteristics. The construction of the city followed the uneven topography, initially with the formation of two levels – Upper Town (Cidade Alta) and Lower Town (Cidade Baixa) – on a steep escarpment, and later with the conception of valley avenues. With 692,818 square km in area, its emerged territory is peninsular, and the coast is bordered by the Bay of All Saints to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The Historic Center of Salvador, iconized on the outskirts of Pelourinho, is known for its colonial architecture, with historical monuments dating from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. The stage of one of the biggest Carnivals in the world (the biggest street party in the world, according to the Guinness World Records), the integration of the municipality to the UNESCO's Creative Cities Network as the "City of Music", a unique title in the country, added to the international recognition of Salvador's music.

It is the most populous municipality in the Northeast, the third most populous in Brazil (Brasília surpassed Salvador in 2016, but it is a federal district, not a municipality), and the ninth largest Latin American city. It is the core of the metropolitan area known as "Great Salvador", which had an estimated 3,957,123 inhabitants in 2020 according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). This makes it the second most populous metropolitan area in the Northeast, the seventh in Brazil, and one of the largest in the world. Also due to these urban-population dimensions, it is classified by the IBGE study on the Brazilian urban network as a regional metropolis. In its reports for the years 2014 and 2020, the Research Network of Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) classified Salvador as a global city in the "Sufficiency" category (the smallest). Global city surveys by consultancy Kearney also included Salvador in the 2018 and 2020 annual reports, while excluding it in the 2019.

The economic centre of the state, Salvador is also a port city, administrative and tourist center. Its metropolitan region has the highest GDP among urban concentrations in the Northeast. In 2018, it had the second highest gross domestic product (GDP) among Northeastern municipalities. Furthermore, it is the headquarters of important regional, national and international companies, such as Novonor, Braskem, Neoenergy Coelba, and Suzano Papel e Celulose. In addition to companies, the city hosts or has hosted many cultural, political, educational, sports events and organizations, such as the Bahia State University, the Federal University of Bahia, the Brazilian Army Complementary Training School, the Brazilian Surfing Confederation, the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (in 2010), the third Ibero-American Summit (in 1993), the 2003 Pan-American Judo Championship, the second Conference of Reeheehee from Africa and the Diaspora (in 2006), the 1989 Copa América, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and Group E of the women's football tournament in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

History Salvador lies on a small, roughly triangular peninsula that separates the Bay of All Saints, the largest bay in Brazil, from the Atlantic Ocean. It was first reached by Gaspar de Lemos in 1501, just one year after Cabral's purported discovery of Brazil. During his second voyage for Portugal, the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci sighted the bay on All Saints' Day (1 November) 1502 and, in honor of the date and his parish church in Florence, he named it the Bay of the Saint Savior of All the Saints. The first European to settle nearby was Diogo Álvares Correia ("Caramuru"), who was shipwrecked off the end of the peninsula in 1509. He lived among the Tupinambá, marrying Guaibimpara and others. In 1531, Martim Afonso de Sousa led an expedition from Mount St Paul (Morro de São Paulo) and, in 1534, Francisco Pereira Coutinho, the first captain of Bahia, established the settlement of Pereira in modern Salvador's Ladeira da Barra neighborhood. Mistreatment of the Tupinambá by the settlers caused them to turn hostile and the Portuguese were forced to flee to Porto Seguro c. 1546. An attempted restoration of the colony the next year ended in shipwreck and cannibalism.

The present city was established as the fortress of São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos ("Holy Savior of the Bay of All Saints")[n 2] in 1549 by Portuguese settlers under Tomé de Sousa, Brazil's first governor-general. It is one of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in the Americas. From a cliff overlooking the Bay of All Saints,[n 3] it served as Brazil's first capital and quickly became a major port for its slave trade and sugarcane industry. Salvador was long divided into an upper and a lower city, divided by a sharp escarpment some 85 meters (279 ft) high. The upper city formed the administrative, religious, and primary residential districts while the lower city was the commercial centre, with a port and market.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Brazil and the rest of the Portuguese Empire were initially administered as part of the Diocese of Funchal in Portugal but, in 1551, Salvador became the seat of the first Roman Catholic diocese erected in Brazil. The first parish church was the mud-and-thatch Church of Our Lady of Help (Igreja da Nossa Senhora da Ajuda) erected by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus),[n 4] which served as the first cathedral of the diocese until the Jesuits finished construction of the original basilica on the Terreiro de Jesus in 1553.[n 5] Its bishop was made independent of the Archdiocese of Lisbon at the request of King Pedro II in 1676; he served as the primate of the Congo and Angola in central Africa until the elevation of the Diocese of Luanda on 13 January 1844 and its bishop still serves as the national primate and premier see (diocese) of Brazil.

In 1572, the Governorate of Brazil was divided into the separate governorates of Bahia in the north and Rio de Janeiro in the south. These were reunited as Brazil six years later, then redivided from 1607 to 1613. By that time, Portugal had become temporarily united with Spain and was ruled from Madrid by its kings. In 1621, King Philip III replaced the Governorate of Brazil with the states of Brazil, still based in Salvador and now controlling the south, and the Maranhão, which was centered on São Luís and controlled what is now northern Brazil. As Spain was then prosecuting a war against the independence of the Dutch, the Dutch East and West India companies tried to conquer Brazil from them. Salvador played a strategically vital role against Dutch Brazil, but was captured and sacked by a West India Company fleet under Jacob Willekens and Piet Hein on 10 May 1624. Johan van Dorth administered the colony before his assassination, freeing its slaves. The city was recaptured by a Luso-Spanish fleet under Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza on 1 May 1625. John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, tried to conquer the city for his country, unsuccessfully besieging it between April and May 1638.

In 1763, the colonial administration was removed to Rio de Janeiro and elevated to a viceroyalty. Salvador remained the heart of the Recôncavo, Bahia's rich agricultural maritime district, but was largely outside Brazil's early modernization. The area formed a centre of royal Portuguese support against heir apparent Pedro I's declaration of independence from European Portugal on 7 September 1822. Its elites initially remained loyal to the Portuguese crown while rebels from Cachoeira besieged them for a year until finally receiving Portugal's surrender of the town on 2 July 1823, which is now celebrated as Bahia Independence Day. The local elite was similarly hesitant during Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca's later coup that established the republic in 1889.

Owing to whales' use of the Bay of All Saints as a mating ground, Salvador became a large whaling port in the Southern Hemisphere during the 19th century but the trade had already begun to fall off by the 1870s.

Under the empire and republic periods, however, the town slowly began to industrialize. In 1873, Brazil's first elevator, the powerful hydraulic Elevador Lacerda, was constructed to connect the city's upper and lower towns. Having undergone several upgrades, it continues in use. By the First World War, it was joined by a second elevator and Salvador was connected to four railroads: the Bahia & Alagoinhas to Joazeiro, the Bahia Central, the Nazareth Tramway, and a short line to Santo Amaro. Its central districts and the major suburbs of Bomfim and Victoria were served by four streetcar lines, which had begun to electrify. It also served as a port of call for most steamship lines trading between Europe and South America.

In 1985, UNESCO listed the city's Pelourinho neighborhood as a World Heritage Site. In the 1990s, a major municipal project cleaned and restored the neighborhood in order to develop it as the cultural centre and heart of the city's tourist trade. The development of the Historical Center, however, involved the forced removal of thousands of working-class residents and now necessitates local and municipal events in order to attract people to the area. The relocated workers, meanwhile, have encountered significant economic hardship in their new homes on the city's periphery, separated from access to work and civic amenities. In 2007, Porto da Barra Beach in Barra was named by the Guardian as the 3rd-best beach in the world. In 2010, the city hosted the 12th UN Congress on Crime Prevention. The city hosted the 2013 Confederations Cup and was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil at its Arena Fonte Nova. As part of its preparations for the World Cup, the city re-established its public transportation lines as the Salvador Metro.

Economy Throughout Brazilian history Salvador has played an important role. Because of its location on Brazil's north-eastern coast, the city served as an important link in the Portuguese empire throughout the colonial era, maintaining close commercial ties with Portugal and Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia.

Salvador remained the preeminent city in Brazil until 1763 when it was replaced as the national capital by Rio de Janeiro. In the last ten years many high-rise office and apartment buildings were constructed, sharing the same blocks with colonial-era housing or commercial buildings.

With its beaches, humid tropical climate, numerous up-to-date shopping malls (The Shopping Iguatemi was the first shopping mall in Northeastern Brazil) and pleasant high-class residential areas, the city has much to offer its residents.

Economically Salvador is one of Brazil's more important cities. Since its founding the city has been one of Brazil's most prominent ports and international trading centers. Boasting a large oil refinery, a petrochemical plant and other important industries, the city has made great strides in reducing its historical dependence on agriculture for its prosperity.

Salvador is the second most popular tourism destination in Brazil, after Rio de Janeiro. Tourism and cultural activity are important generators of employment and income, boosting the arts and the preservation of artistic and cultural heritage.

Chief among the points of interest are its famous Pelourinho (named after the colonial pillories that once stood there) district, its historic churches, and its beaches. Salvador's tourism infrastructure is considered one of the most modern in World, especially in terms of lodging. The city offers accommodation to suit all tastes and standards, from youth hostels to international hotels. Construction is one of the most important activities in the city, and many international (mainly from Spain, Portugal and England) and national developers are investing in the city and in the Bahian littoral zone.

JAC Motors will have a plant in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, in the city of Camaçari, the new industry will result 3,500 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs, the production of 100,000 vehicles by year.

In December 2001, Monsanto Company inaugurated, at the Petrochemical Pole of Camaçari, in Metropolitan Region of Salvador, the first plant of the company designed to produce raw materials for the herbicide Roundup in South America. The investment is equivalent to US$500 million; US$350 million were spent in this initial phase. The Camaçari Plant, the largest unit of Monsanto outside of the United States, is also the only Monsanto plant manufacturing raw materials for the Roundup production line. The company started the civil works for the new plant in January 2000.

Tourism and recreation The Salvador coastline is one of the longest for cities in Brazil. There are 80 km (50 mi) of beaches distributed between the High City and the Low City, from Inema, in the railroad suburb to the Praia do Flamengo, on the other side of town. While the Low City beaches are bordered by the waters of the All Saints Bay (the country's most extensive bay), the High City beaches, from Farol da Barra to Flamengo, are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The exception is Porto da Barra Beach, the only High City beach located in the All Saints Bay.

The capital's beaches range from calm inlets, ideal for swimming, sailing, diving and underwater fishing, as well as open sea inlets with strong waves, sought by surfers. There are also beaches surrounded by reefs, forming natural pools of stone, ideal for children.

Interesting places to visit near Salvador include: • According to the British newspaper The Guardian, in 2007, Porto da Barra Beach was the third best in the world. • The large island of Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints can be visited either by a car-ferry, or a smaller foot-passenger ferry, which leaves from near the Mercado Modelo near the Lacerda Elevator. • BA-099 Highway, or "Line of Coconut" and "Green Line" of towns and cities, with exquisite beaches, north of Salvador heading towards Sergipe state. • Morro de São Paulo in the Valença region across the Bay of All Saints – an island that can be reached by ferry from Salvador (2 hours), by plane, or by bus to Valença and then by 'Rapido' ('fast') speedboat or smaller ferry. Morro de São Paulo is formed by five villages of the Tinharé Island. The city is served by many shopping malls, including Shopping Iguatemi, Salvador Shopping, Shopping Barra, and Shopping Paralela.

Salvador has four parks, green areas protected, as Jardim dos Namorados Park, Costa Azul Park, Park of the city, Park of Pituaçu.

Jardim dos Namorados is located right next to Costa Azul Park and occupies an area of 15 hectares in Pituba, where many families used to spend their vacations in the 1950s. It was inaugurated in 1969, initially as a leisure area. It underwent a complete renovation in the 1990s, with the construction of an amphitheater with room for 500 people, sports courts, playgrounds and parking for cars and tourist buses. Park of the city is an important preservation area of the Atlantic forest. It was completely renovated in 2001, becoming a modern social, cultural and leisure place. The new park has 720 square meter of green area right in the middle of the city. Among the attractions are Praça das Flores (Flowers square), with more than five thousand ornamental plants and flowers.

Besides its environment, the park has an infrastructure for children, with a special schedule of events taking place every October.

Created by state decree in 1973, Pituaçu Park occupies an area of 450 hectares and is one of the few Brazilian ecological parks located in an urban area. It is surrounded by Atlantic forest, with a good variety of plants and animals. There is also an artificial pond in the park, built in 1906 along with the Pituaçu Dam, whose purpose was to supply water to the city.

There are a number of possible leisure activities, ranging from cycloboats rides on the pond, to a 38 km (24 mi) long cycloway circling the entire reserve. A museum is also located in the park. Espaço Cravo is an outdoor museum with 800 pieces created by Mario Cravo, comprising Totems, winged and three-dimensional figures, as well as drawings and paintings.

Educational institutions The city has several universities: • Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) (Federal University of Bahia); • Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal) (Catholic University of Salvador); • Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB) (Bahia State University); • Universidade Salvador (UNIFACS) (Salvador University); • Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciências (FTC) (College of Technology and Science); • Instituto Federal da Bahia (IFBA) (Federal Institute of Bahia); • Faculdade Ruy Barbosa (FRB) (Ruy Barbosa College); • Campus Integrado de Manufatura e Tecnologia (CIMATEC) (Integrated Campus of Manufacturing and Technology); • Faculdade Castro Alves (FCA) (Castro Alves College); • Centro Universitário Jorge Amado (UNIJORGE) (Jorge Amado University Center); • Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública (EBMSP) (Bahian School of Medicine and Public Health);