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| Pelourinho Quarter Vacations and Luxury Travel Packages |
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Until a few years ago, this picturesque Baroque enclave of Salvador was deteriorating rapidly and appeared to be beyond hope. By the end of the 1980's, the artists of African descent living in the neighborhood were the only ones making any efforts to rescue it. Every Sunday evening local drummers and percussionists from the group Bloco Afro Olodum held a free open rehearsal on the sloping plaza, Largo do Pelourinho. They subsequently made a live recording in the U.S., on which the spice of Afro-Brazilian drum rolls was added to Paul Simon's The Obvious Child. The unusual driving rhythms made the title a worldwide hit in 1990, brought Simon once again into the limelight, and established the reputation of the now renowned drummers of Olodum. Young people in Brazil then began taking an interest in both Salvador's raw Axe music and in Bloco Afro Olodum's rehearsals. At the same time, heretofore undreamed of amounts of money suddenly began flowing into the crumbling Baroque city, and in 1992, in an unprecedented show of solidarity, the municipal government decided to support the musicians' initiative by completely renovating and restoring several hundred buildings in the historic town center.
Since the definitive resurrection of the historic Baroque quarter, once listless Pelourinho ("pillory" in Portuguese) has been transformed into a lively cosmopolitan quarter, with round-the-clock locales frequented not only by tourists from all over the world, but also by musicloving Brazilian youths. The neighborhood offers an abundance of live music set to irresistible rhythms, Afro-Brazilian and other ethnic restaurants, and whimsical boutiques.
The Olodum drummers, who have since been catapulted to fame by a music video they made with Michael Jackson, perform on Tuesday nights at Largo Tereza Batista, one of the many new and for tourists highly recommended gathering places in the upper city. The free (and consequently full-to-overflowing) Sunday afternoon rehearsals are still held on Largo do Pelourinho, but in view of the large crowds no valuables should be either brought or worn to this event.
The large edifice at the front of the plaza houses two museums, the Museu da Cidade and Fundagao Casa de Jorge Amado. The foundation houses an archive of photographs of Jorge Amado, as well as translations into numerous languages of the works of Bahia's bestknown author. The second floor is given over to exhibitions of the work of local and regional artists. A narrow sloping street adjacent to the museum leads to Rua Gregdrio de Matos, site of the headquarters of Brazil's best-known Afoxe, Filhos de Gandhi, a cultural association of Afro-Brazilian men that has been in existence for generations. The internationally renowned and prizewinning folklore theater company Miguel Santana has its offices and performance space on this street as well.
At the corner of Rua Gregorio Matos and Rua Angelo Ferraz stands Solar do Ferrao, a mansion dating from 1690 that was originally a Jesuit seminary. Restored in 1976, it now houses the Museu Abelardo Rodrigues, which has the largest private collection of religious art in Brazil, including rare processional figures, paintings and sculptures.
The yellow construction on the right at the lower end of Largo do Pelourinho is Senac (State School of Gastronomy), which serves regional specialties. You can choose at will from a superb buffet, which means you can both procure and subsequently savor these Afro-Brazilian dishes without having to resort to the medium of language. In the evenings there a variety of folklore performances are held in the courtyard, e.g., of capoeira, the ritualized fighting dance of the slaves.
The building adjacent to Senac is Pelourinho's calling-card; a blue church featuring twin towers known as Nossa Senhora do Rosario dos Pretos (Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks). Built and financed by slaves and freed slaves at the beginning of the 18th century, it is in the hands of an order of black priests to this day.
The restored colonial structure at the next corner is Casa do Benin, which was established on the initiative of the French ethnologist Pierre Verger to pay homage to the cultures of the many African peoples who were forcibly brought to Bahia from the former Dahomey. The museum documents the links between African and Bahian culture, and the restaurant provides visitors with the opportunity to sample a culinary potpourri of dishes made of such exotic ingredients as coconut milk and palm oil.
Steeply inclined Ladeira do Carmo leads directly to the Igreja Nossa Senhora do Pago (1737), one of Salvador's 76 churches. Further along, Ladeira do Carmo intersects Rua do Carmo, where two Carmelite churches are to be found: the lay church of Ordem Terceira do Carmo and Igreja do Carmo, the cloister church. Especially noteworthy are the carved rosewood choir stalls. Each church also has a small museum whose most engaging works are Francisco Chagas' realistic sculpture of Christ being scourged (lay church), and a sacristy cloaked in sumptuous gilding (cloister church).
Venturing a bit farther down Rua do Carmo leads the visitor to a lesser-known upper city bairro (neighborhood), where small picturesque houses adorn quiet, archtypically quaint cobblestone streets. This romantic corner of Pelourinho provided an ideal backdrop for the screen adaptation of the Jorge Amado novel Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, in which Sonia Braga starred. |
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