Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FUTEBOL SALVADOR
Long overshadowed by its big brothers in the south, Salvador now has two teams that
regularly compete in Série A, and was a host city for the World Cup in 2014.
Esporte Clube
Bahia
(
W
esporteclubebahia.com.br) play at the new Arena Fonte Nova (Ladeira da Fonte das
Pedras, Nazaré); it's easy to get to, 5km west of the city's main bus station. Bahia's main rival is
Esporte Clube Vitória
(
W
ecvitoria.com.br) aka “Leão da Barra”, who play at the Estádio
Manoel Barradas, also known as the Barradão, a much smaller stadium 18km northeast of the
old centre. The two teams meet in heated games known simply as the “Ba-Vi”. It's usually
possible to buy tickets (from R$15-30) at the stadium just before a game, but as always your
hotel should be able to help.
he
centro histórico
is the traditional heart of Salvador, but in the last century the city
also expanded into the still elegant areas of
Vitória
,
Garcia
,
Graça
,
Barris
and
Canela
, to
the south, and down to the suburb of
Barra
, the headland at the mouth of the bay. From
Barra, a broken coastline of coves and beaches, large and small, is linked by the twisting
Avenida Oceânica
, which runs along the shore for 22km through the other main beach
areas,
Ondina
,
Rio Vermelho
,
Pituba
and
Itapuã
(near the airport). Inland, the district of
Caminho das Árvores
, a forest of contemporary skyscrapers clustered around the vast
Salvador Shopping
mall, is fast becoming the new business centre. This “new downtown”
area is a long way from anything of interest, though all the best business hotels are there.
3
Brief history
Salvador was o
cially founded in 1549 by Portuguese conquistador
Tomé de Sousa
, who
chose the city for its inaccessible perch 70m above sea level. It was the scene of a great
battle in 1624, when the Dutch destroyed the Portuguese fleet in the bay and stormed
and captured the town, only to be forced out again within a year by a joint Spanish and
Portuguese force. For the first 300 years of its existence, Salvador was the most important
port and city in the South Atlantic - Rio only replaced it as capital in 1763.
Salvador was also Brazil's main slave port, and the survivors of the brutal journey
from the Portuguese Gold Coast and Angola were immediately packed off to city
construction gangs or the plantations of the
Recôncavo
; today, their descendants make
up the bulk of the population. Much of the plantation wealth of the Recôncavo was
Feira De Santana
Madre de Deus
GREATER
SALVADOR
Ilha de Maré
Ilha dos Frades
0
5
kilometres
Baia de Todos os Santos
N
Itaparica
Ponta de Areia
Salvador
Bom Despacho
Itapuã
FLAMENGO
Rio Jaguaripe
JAGUARIBE
STELLA MARIS
PITUAÇU
ARMAÇÃO
AMARALINA
PITUBA
V E
N
Ilha de Itaparica
ATLANTIC OCEAN
CAFÉ
Acarajé da Cira
1
Morro de São Paulo
