Salvador, Brazil

Salvador (in full, São Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos, or in literal translation: "Holy Savior of All Saints' Bay") is a city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the northeastern Brazilian State of Bahia. The city was for a long time also known as Bahia, and appears under that name (or as Salvador da Bahia, Salvador of Bahia so as to differentiate it from other Brazilian cities of the same name) on many maps and books from before the mid 20th century, including in Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719).

Geography

Physical setting

Salvador is located on a small, roughly triangular peninsula that separates Todos os Santos Bay from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay, which gets its name from having been discovered on All Saints' Day forms a superb natural harbor, and Salvador is a major export port, lying at the heart of the Recôncavo Baiano, a rich agricultural and industrial region encompassing the northern portion of coastal Bahia. The local terrain is diverse ranging from flat to rolling to hills and low mountains. A particularly notable feature is the escarpment that divides Salvador into the Cidade Alta ("Upper Town") and the Cidade Baixa ("Lower Town"), the former some 85m (275ft) above the latter ^*, with the city's famous cathedral and most administrative buildings standing on the higher ground. A set of gigantic elevators (the first elevators installed in Brazil), known as Elevador Lacerda has connected the two sections since 1873, having since undergone several upgrades.

The coastline is equally diverse, featuring sandy beaches, sea cliffs, mangrove swamps, and a number of islands, the largest of which, Itaparica, being a famous resort area.

Climate

Salvador has a typical tropical climate, with warm to hot temperatures and high relative humidity all throughout the year. However, these conditions are relieved by a near absence of extreme temperatures and pleasant trade winds blowing from the ocean. March is the warmest month, with mean maxima of 30°C (86°F) and minima of 24°C (75°F); July experiences the coolest temperatures, with means of 26°C (79°F) and 21°C (70°F). The absolute maximum and minimum are respectively 38°C (100°F) and 12°C (54°F). Unlike in the inland areas of Bahia, known as the Sertão, rainfall is quite abundant, with a total yearly average of 201cm (83"), being heaviest in May at 33cm (12.8") and generally tapering off until reaching a nadir of 11cm (4.4") in January. Tropical cyclones and tornadoes are unknown in the area. ^*^*

People

Culture

Salvador is a very culturally rich city, being a bastion of Afro-Brazilian customs and ways. Consequently, religions of Yoruba and other African derivation, such as Candomblé, Umbanda, and Quimbanda, are practiced by much of the population, in most cases in conjunction with Roman Catholicism. Native musical forms include the spiritually influenced afoxé, the community-based blocos afros, and the more popular axé and samba as well. Salvador's visual arts, theater, and literature have also gained a worldwide following, with Jorge Amado being a renowned author whose novels featured local themes. The local cuisine, spicy and based on seafood, strongly relies on typically West African ingredients and techniques, and is much appreciated throughout Brazil. Capoeira, a unique form of martial arts, combining agile dance moves with unarmed combat techniques, is also very popular in the area and largely of African origin (85% of the population). Even the local dialect of Portuguese is laden with African words and intonations, and sounds very "relaxed," especially when compared to European Portuguese. In part because of this atmosphere, Salvador is quickly becoming a popular "heritage" destination for African-Americans.

The city contains many fine colonial buildings, its Historic Center having been designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco. There are found many magnificent old houses, the nation's first medical school, and, even more importantly, Brazil's oldest cathedral (1572) and over 350 additional churches, many featuring significant works of art. The great number of Catholic houses of worship in the city has earned it the nickname of "Black Rome."

Demographics

The municipality (município) of Salvador had a population of 2.54 million people as of 2002, making it the third largest in Brazil, behind São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro but ahead of Belo Horizonte. The Salvador Metropolitan Region as a whole is home to approximately 3.35 million people. It has the highest proportion of people of African descent in the country, and the largest black population in the Western Hemisphere after New York City.

History

Although Todos os Santos Bay was first encountered by Europeans and christened in 1502, the city of Salvador wasn't founded until 1549 by a fleet of Portuguese settlers headed by Tomé de Souza, the first governor general of Brazil. It quickly became Brazil's main sea port and the first colonial capital of Portuguese Brazil, a center of the sugar industry and the slave trade. The city became the seat of the first Catholic bishop of Brazil in 1552, and is still an ecclesiastical power center of Brazilian Catholicism. Its cathedral, still standing today, was completed in 1572. By 1583, there were 1,600 people residing in the city, and it quickly grew into one of the largest cities in the New World, surpassing any colonial American city at the time of the American Revolution in 1776.

Salvador was the capital city of the Portuguese viceroyalty of Grão-Pará and its province of Bahia de Todos os Santos. The Dutch captured and sacked the city in May of 1624, and held it along with other NE ports until it was re-taken by the Portuguese in April of the following year.

Salvador was the first capital of Brazil and remained so until 1763, when it was succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era. The city became a base for the Brazilian independence movement and was attacked by Portuguese troops in 1812, before being officially liberated on July 2 1823. It settled into graceful decline over the next 150 years, out of the mainstream of Brazilian industrialisation. It remains, however, a national cultural and tourist center.

By 1948 the city had some 340,000 people, and was already Brazil's fourth largest city. By 1991 the population was 2.08 million.

In the 1990s, a major city project cleaned up and restored the old downtown area, the Pelourinho, or Centro Historico ("Historical Center").

Salvador has been the birthplace of many noted Brazilians, including musicians such as song-writer Dorival Caymmi, MPB star Gal Costa, and Grammy-winner Gilberto Gil. Gil later went on to be a city council member (vereador) and is currently the Brazilian Minister of Culture. Notable writers associated with the city include Jorge Amado, considered one of Brazil's greatest authors and fabulists and João Ubaldo Ribeiro. The famous Brazilian visual artist Carybé is based in Salvador as well.

Salvador today

Population position in Brazil: 3a Tourism frequence position in Brazil: 2a The city's official literacy rate is 81%. As of the late 1990s, the average monthly income was R$ 1,108.00 (about 447 US dollars). Sanitation is a problem in the poorer neighborhoods. About 1/3 of the residents have neither sewage hookups nor septic tanks but the Bahian state government is working hard in projects like Bahia Azul ("Blue Bay") and Viver Melhor ("Living Better"). The city is one of open sewers which drain into the bay, which has led many tourist guides to advise tourists not to swim in the water on the bay side of the city, such as Porto da Barra, and instead suggesting beaches on the Atlantic Ocean side of the peninsula such as Itapuã, Pituba and Stella Maris.

The city has several universities:

Universidade Federal da Bahia,
State University of Bahia,
Catholic University of Salvador.
UNIFACS
College of Technology and Science
see also List of universities in Brazil

Salvador is noted for its large Carnival celebrations, which include a strong Afro-Brazilian musical and spiritual component.

Esporte Clube Bahia and Esporte Clube Vitória are Salvador's main soccer teams. EC Bahia has won a national title twice: Brazil's Cup (equivalent to the championship of the Brazilian league prior to 1971) in 1959 and the championship of the Brazilian League in 1988. EC Vitoria, on the other side, has never won a national title and was only once the runner up in the Brazilian League in 1993. As of 2006, both clubs are competing in the Brazilian Third Division.

Salvador is an important tourist destination. Chief among the points of interest are its famous Pelourinho (named after the colonial pillories that once stood there) district, its magnificent historic churches, and its beaches.

Ford Motor Company has a plant in the Salvador Metropolitan Area, in the city of Camaçari, assembling the Ford Courier, Ford Ecosport and Ford Fiesta.

Salvador currently has a Metro System under construction. The Metro is projected to have 2 lines and will be integrated with bus and by the rail service. The first stage of the metro will be ready in 2006 (or, with delays, by early 2007).

Salvador has an international airport named Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport. In addition to domestic and regional services, it has non-stop flights to Lisbon, Madrid, and Miami. Its IATA code is SSA and it is the 6th busiest airport in the country, the first in northeastern Brazil, behind CGH, GRU, BSB, SDU and GIG.

Today, one who appears to have a lot of money or does not appear to be Brazilian, must use caution when traveling in Salvador. The gap between rich and poor are very large and many "pick pockets" and theives will catch on close if one appears to be overdressed. The best way to avoid this is to "dress down" and be very observant. Also traveling in groups at night and not travling alone at all (even during the day) can help lessen one as a target.

External links

Salvador Official Tourism Website
Salvador Brazil by Sergio Koreisha
Bahia-online.net
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil 2 pages with many photos, may be slow loading
Guia Salvador
Brazil
Salvador Bahia Virtual Tours
Brazil Turismo Salvador
Brazil

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