Salvador is the capital of the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil — a city of 2.9 million, the fourth-largest in Brazil, and the city with the largest Black population of any city in the world outside Africa (80% of Salvador's population is Afro-Brazilian, the highest percentage of any city of its size in the Americas). Salvador was the first capital of colonial Brazil (1549-1763, when the capital moved to Rio de Janeiro) and the largest slave port in the Americas — between 1549 and 1851, approximately 1.5 million enslaved Africans arrived through Salvador, the largest single slave trade landing point in the New World; this history shaped the most African culture of any Brazilian city, with the Candomblé religion (an Afro-Brazilian synthesis of Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu African religions with a Catholic overlay, featuring orixás — divine spirits — worshipped in terreiro ritual house ceremonies), the capoeira martial art (developed by enslaved Africans in Bahia as a disguised self-defence system combining dance, music and acrobatics), the acarajé (black-eyed pea fritter deep-fried in palm oil by Baianas — the women in white muslin dressed in the Candomblé style who sell food at street corners, an UNESCO-listed tradition), and the axé music (the Salvador-born pop genre that dominated Brazilian music in the 1990s and is the soundtrack of Carnival). The Pelourinho (the historic centre, UNESCO World Heritage 1985) is the finest colonial Baroque urban ensemble in the Americas — five centuries of Portuguese colonial architecture in vivid blue, yellow, green and pink paint on steeply sloping streets above the Bay of All Saints (Baía de Todos os Santos, the largest bay in Brazil at 1,100 km², larger than the UK's entire navigable inland water), the largest bay in the Americas.
The Pelourinho (Portuguese: pillory — the whipping post where enslaved people were publicly punished, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985) is the historic centre of Salvador — a dense grid of 17th-18th century colonial Baroque mansions, convents, churches and merchant houses painted in vivid tropical colours (cobalt blue, terracotta orange, lime yellow, dusty rose) on steeply cobblestone streets descending to the lower city; the Largo do Pelourinho square, the Largo Cruzeiro de São Francisco with the Convent of São Francisco (the most gilded Baroque church in Brazil — 800 kg of gold leaf inside), and the Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado (the museum of the Bahia author Jorge Amado, whose novels — Gabriela, Cravo e Canela; Dona Flor e seus Dois Maridos — defined Salvador's literary identity).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Igreja de São Francisco (the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi within the Franciscan Convent complex, Pelourinho, 1708-1723) is the most gilded Baroque church in the Americas — the interior has approximately 800 kg of gold leaf applied to carved cedar wood surfaces that cover every cm of the nave, apse, altars, organ pipes and ceiling in the highest density of Baroque gilded carving in Brazil; the adjacent cloister has azulejo tiles (Portuguese blue-and-white tiles, the largest azulejo-tiled cloister in Brazil) depicting the life of Saint Francis; a UNESCO representative site and the most photographed interior in Salvador.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCapoeira (the Afro-Brazilian martial art developed by enslaved Africans in Bahia — disguised as dance to evade the prohibition on enslaved people practising self-defence, accompanied by the berimbau musical bow whose rhythm dictates the speed and style of the combat; declared UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage 2014) has its capital in Salvador — the Mestre Bimba Academy (the founder of Capoeira Regional, the modernised style, founded his first school here) and the Mestre Pastinha Academy (the founder of Capoeira Angola, the traditional style, based in the Pelourinho) both offer watching and introductory classes.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe acarajé (the Afro-Brazilian street food of Salvador — a fritter of ground black-eyed peas mixed with onion and salt, deep-fried in palm oil/dendê oil in a clay pot, split open and filled with vatapá — a paste of bread, shrimp, coconut milk and dendê oil — and caruru — okra stew — and dried shrimp; declared UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage) sold by the Baianas at their corner stands (the women in white muslin with bead necklaces and turbans in the colours of their orixá — the Candomblé deity they serve) is the defining Salvador street food experience; the Largo do Cruzeiro de São Francisco Baiana stand at dusk.
The Pelourinho on Tuesday evenings (and weekends year-round) has outdoor percussion performances by the groups whose sounds defined Salvador's musical identity — Olodum (the Afro-Brazilian percussion group who played with Paul Simon and Michael Jackson, whose samba-reggae drumming style became the soundtrack of the 1990s Salvador Carnival and the axé music era) and Timbalada (Carlinhos Brown's percussion group from Candeal); the Pelourinho bars on Rua das Laranjeiras and Rua Gregório de Matos serve caipirinhas, batidas and the local cerveja.
Candomblé (the Afro-Brazilian religion of the Yoruba, Fon and Bantu traditions brought by enslaved people to Bahia, featuring 16 orixás — divine spirits embodying forces of nature: Oxalá for peace/creation, Yemanjá for the sea/women, Xangô for justice/lightning, Oxum for love/rivers, Ogum for war/iron — worshipped in terreiro ceremony houses through music, dance and trance possession) has its world capital in Salvador; some terreiros in the Liberdade and Federação neighbourhoods open to respectful visitors on specific ceremony nights (confirm in advance); the Casa Branca do Engenho Velho (the oldest Candomblé terreiro in Brazil, founded 1830s) is a heritage site.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Elevador Lacerda (the art deco public elevator, 1930, 72 metres tall, connecting the Cidade Alta — the upper colonial historic city — with the Cidade Baixa — the lower commercial port district; 900,000 passengers per month, one of the world's busiest urban elevators) is the defining Salvador infrastructure landmark — the four elevator shafts (2 up, 2 down) with their art deco tower visible from the bay; the view from the top across the Baía de Todos os Santos (the largest bay in the Americas, 1,100 km², with 56 islands) with the historic peninsula of Salvador in the foreground is the city's panoramic moment.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Mercado Modelo (the former Customs House building at the port base of the Elevador Lacerda, now a two-floor Afro-Brazilian craft market) is the best craft shopping in Salvador — orixá-related religious items (beaded necklaces in orixá colours, wooden carvings, erê figures), capoeira instruments (berimbau, pandeiro, atabaque drum), lace from the Baianas (the renda-filé needle lace of the Bahian coast, the finest handmade lace in Brazil), hammocks, woodwork from the São Francisco Valley; the capoeiristas performing in the square outside are part of the market experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePorto da Barra beach (the historic 400 m beach at the northern tip of the Salvador peninsula, sheltered by the Fort of Santo António da Barra — a 1598 star fort with the oldest lighthouse in the Americas still in operation) is considered the finest urban beach in Brazil — the calm, clear turquoise water (sheltered from the ocean swell by the headland), the Atlantic Fortress in the background, the capoeiristas practising on the beach at sunset, the beach bars, and the sunset (Porto da Barra faces west — it has the finest ocean sunset in Salvador) make it the perfect Salvador afternoon.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Museu Afro-Brasileiro (MAFro, within the former Medical School building, Terreiro de Jesus, Pelourinho) is the finest museum of Afro-Brazilian history and culture in the country — the orixá carvings (the 27 carved wood panels by the Bahian artist Carybé depicting each orixá with their attributes, colours and associated Candomblé elements — the most important artwork about Afro-Brazilian religion in Brazil), the African artefacts and the exhibition on the Bahian slave trade (the largest slave import point in the Americas, 1549-1851, 1.5 million Africans primarily from West Africa — Yoruba from Nigeria, Fon from Dahomey, Bantu from Congo-Angola).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Ilha de Itaparica (the largest island in the Baía de Todos os Santos, 35 km from Salvador, accessible by 45-minute ferry from the Terminal Marítimo de São Joaquim in the Cidade Baixa) is the Salvador island escape — white sand beaches on the Atlantic side (Aratuba, Calhetas, Ponta de Areia), the colonial town of Vera Cruz with its 17th-century Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Penha church, the cashew orchards in the island interior, and the calm bay beach at Itaparica town where fishermen repair their nets at dawn; the ferry ride across the vast bay (1,100 km², with 56 islands visible) is itself the experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMoqueca bahiana (the Bahian coconut fish stew — distinct from the Espírito Santo moqueca which uses no coconut milk or palm oil; the Bahian version has fresh fish or shrimp simmered in a clay pot with coconut milk, dendê palm oil, tomatoes, onions, green pepper, garlic and coriander — the dendê oil gives the stew its distinctive orange colour and earthy richness; served with white rice, farofa de dendê — toasted manioc flour with palm oil — and pirão — a thick fish-stock porridge) at the Pelourinho restaurant Senac or at Yemanjá on the Jardim de Ala avenue; the definitive Salvador dining experience.
The Igreja do Nosso Senhor do Bonfim (the Church of Our Lord of Bonfim, 7 km north of the Pelourinho on the Itapagipe Peninsula, built 1745-1772) is the most sacred church in Salvador — the fitas do Bonfim (the thin ribbon bracelets in the three colours of the Bonfim church, tied around the wrist with three knots, each making a wish; the ribbon must fall off naturally for the wishes to come true) are the icon of Bahia; the church blends Catholic devotion with Candomblé syncretism (the Lord of Bonfim = Oxalá, the supreme Candomblé orixá); the nearby Praia da Boa Viagem beach hosts the Festa de Yemanjá on February 2nd.