The Cidade Alta, or Upper Town, is the historical centre of Salvador. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, and its steep cobbled streets, churches, museums and colourful colonial houses have been completely renovated; there is a stron..

The Largo do Pelourinho, or Praça José de Alençar, is located in a street in Old Salvador. Its name comes from the pelourinho (pillory) that stood here during colonial times, and it was the place where slaves were punished before the masses. Today,..

The original church was destroyed by a fire in 1788 and has been replaced by this Rococo building (1803). The showpiece of the Igreja da Ordem Terceira do Carmo, is a cedar carving of Christ (1730), inlaid with rubies to represent 2 000 droplets of..

Housed in the former convent of Santa Teresa de Ávila (17C), the Museu de Arte Sacra has a substantial collection of 17C and 18C works. All the main names of Bahian colonial art feature: Frei Agostinho da Piedade, José Joaquim da Rocha, and his disci..

The Convent of the Carmelites (17C), laid out around two cloisters, is partially occupied by a luxury hotel. It served as a refuge to Dutch forces during the invasion of 1624, as well as for Portuguese troops during Bahia's wars of independence. You ..

Wood panelling sculpted with a thousand motifs and heavily gilded… A Baroque profusion decorates the inside of this church, an early 18C masterpiece. The paintings on the ceiling, by José Joaquim da Rocha, as well as the sculpture of St Peter of Alca..

The Santa Casa da Misericórdia, a Portuguese Catholic institution, opened its first "branch" in Brazil in 1549. Their rammed-clay hospital was replaced in 1697 by this imposing complex built around two cloisters and a church. It houses a mu..

The Terreiro de Jesus, also called Praça XV de Novembro, is extended by the Largo do Cruzeiro. It is the place where you will find the most tourists in Pelourinho. Capoeira rodas are held here before wide-eyed passers-by, there are numerous bars an..

On your left as you come onto the Terreiro de Jesus stands Basílica da Sé (or Catedral Basílica), built by the Jesuits between 1657 and 1672, using the noblest of materials: gold, marble from Portugal and jacaranda wood. A canny mix of Baroque and Ro..

This was the slaves' church, which they built themselves, as they were banned from entering the others. They had little to work with, so it took nearly the whole of the 18C to complete. Nowadays, the blue façade of Igreja N. S. do Rosário brightens u..

The Solar do Ferrão, one of the finest houses (17C) in the city, is home to heritage services and a Museum of Sacred Art (Museu Abelardo Rodrigues). The collection holds oratories, crucifixes, miniatures, roca saints (procession statues) and statue..

Itapagipe peninsula juts out into the bay under the protection of Fort N. S. de Monte Serrat. The Boa Viagem neighbourhood has a popular beach that gets crowded at weekends and its little village streets wind up to the fort, the church and the Mon..

The façade of this church, illuminated by white light bulbs in the evening, can be seen from afar, perched on the Colina Sagrada (Sacred Hill). The church (1754) is a strong symbol of the religious syncretism of Bahians. Attend mass on Friday (5pm), ..

The Museu de Arte da Bahia is housed in a 19C villa that still bears the name of one of its former owners, Cerqueira de Lima, who made his fortune from the slave trade. For a time Governors Palace, it was substantially reworked in 1925. The collectio..

The collections of the Museu Carlos Costa Pinto show the luxury and refinement of the sugar aristocracy in the 17C-19C through exhibits including Baccarat crystals, Bahian jacaranda furniture, silverware and porcelain from China and Japan… Note also ..

The façade (1702-1703) of this church, made of stone sculpted in the Baroque Plateresque style common in the Spanish colonies, is the only one of its kind in Brazil. Inside, the Baroque talhas were replaced in 1828 by a neo-Classical decoration. ..

Praça Tomé de Souza, named after the founder of the city of Salvador (a statue in the centre of the square pays homage to him), or Praça Municipal, because of the institutional monuments that surround it: the Paço Municipal , the city's seat of powe..

The Afro-Brazilian Museum is dedicated to African culture in Brazil, which is particularly profuse in the State of Bahia. Between the 16C and 19C, some five million Africans were taken to Brazil, most of them Bantu from Angola, the Congo and Mozambiq..

Forte São Marcelo is a small, circular fort that was erected on a sandbank in 1650, opposite the Cidade Baixa (Lower Town). It had 54 cannons in a fan formation. Its wall houses rooms where you can find out about the history of the fort and the colon..

The Parque Zoobotânico is located up in the Ondina neighbourhood, whose beach is next to Barra's. In the park, you come across several Brazilian species: toucans, macaws, monkeys ( macacoprego ), jaguars ( onça-pintada ), tapirs ( anta ), broad-snout..