Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE CITY OF WRITERS AND MUSICIANS
A disproportionate number of Brazil's leading writers and poets were either born in Salvador
or lived there, including Jorge Amado, the most widely translated Brazilian novelist, and
Vinícius de Morães, Brazil's best-known modern poet, who lived here between 1974 and 1980
with his Bahian wife. Gregório de Matos was born in Salvador in 1636 and went on to become
the most important Baroque poet in colonial Brazil.
The majority of the great names who made Brazilian music famous also hail from the city -
João Gilberto, the leading exponent, with Tom Jobim, of bossa nova; Astrud Gilberto, whose
quavering version of The Girl from Ipanema was a global hit in the 1960s; Dorival Caymmi,
the patriarch of Brazilian popular music, who died in 2008; Caetano Veloso, the founder of
tropicalismo ; the singers Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa; and MPB artist Gilberto Gil, who was
Minister of Culture in Lula's government. Timbalada rhythms and the world-renowned black
musician Carlinhos Brown are among the most recent additions to Salvador's hall of fame.
The city's music is still as rich and innovative as ever, and bursts out every year in a Carnaval
that many regard as the best in Brazil (see p.223).
3
The ground floor
The museum's largest and best collection is on the ground floor , recording and
celebrating the African contribution to Brazilian culture. Four rooms are dedicated
to different aspects of black culture - popular religion, capoeira, weaving, music and
carnaval - and everything, for once, is very well laid out. The section on capoeira, the
balletic martial art the city's slaves developed (see box opposite), is fascinating,
supported by photos and old newspaper clippings.
There are other highlights, too: the gallery of large photographs of candomblé leaders
(some dating from the nineteenth century), most in full regalia and exuding pride and
authority, and a special room dedicated to the famous carved wood panels by Carybé,
Bahia's most famous artist, in the exhibition room past the photo gallery. Argentine by
birth, Carybé came to Salvador in 1950 to find inspiration in the city and its culture.
The carved panels in the museum, imaginatively decorated with scrap metal, represent
the gods and goddesses of candomblé.
Museu Arqueológico e Etnológico
The first floor houses a rather dull exhibition on the university's faculty of medicine,
dominated by busts and dusty bookcases. Better is the basement , a section known as the
Museu Arqueológico e Etnológico . Largely given over to fossils and artefacts from ancient
burial sites, it also incorporates tribal costume, basketry and rock art, as well as the only
surviving part of the original Jesuit college, a section of the cellars in the arched brickwork
at the far end. A diagram at the entrance to the museum shows how enormous the college
was, extending all the way from what is now the Praça da Sé to Largo do Pelourinho.
Igreja e Convento de São Francisco
Largo do Cruzeiro de São Francisco • Tues-Sat 9am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-3pm • R$5 • T 71 3322 6430
Dominating the eastern end of tranquil Largo do Cruzeiro de São Francisco (an extension
of Terreiro de Jesus) is the superb, carved stone facade of the Igreja e Convento de São
Francisco , an ornate Baroque church completed between 1708 and 1723. Inside, the
small cloister is decorated with one of the finest single pieces of azulejo (decorative glazed
tiling) work in Brazil. Running the entire length of the cloister, the tiled wall tells the
story of the marriage of the son of the king of Portugal to an Austrian princess. The
vigour and realism of the incidental detail in the street scenes are remarkable: beggars and
cripples display their wounds, dogs skulk, children play in the gutter; and the panoramic
view of Lisbon it displays is an important historical record of how that city looked before
the calamitous earthquake of 1755. Upstairs a small Museu de Art Sacra displays the usual
array of religious art and also a throne used by Dom Pedro II.
 
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