Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos
Largo do Pelourinho • Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat & Sun 8am-noon • Free •
T
71 3241 5781
Lined with solid colonial mansions, the Largo do Pelourinho is dominated by the
oriental-looking towers of the
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos
, built by and
for slaves over many decades in the 1700s and still with a largely black congregation.
Casa de Jorge Amado
Largo do Pelourinho • Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm • R$3 (free on Wed) •
T
71 3321 0070,
W
jorgeamado.org.br
At the top of the Largo do Pelourinho, the
Casa de Jorge Amado
is a museum
dedicated to the life and work of the hugely popular Brazilian novelist, though there
are also travelling displays with a literary theme. Amado was born in Itabuna in the
south of Bahia, but he attended high school in Salvador and spent much of his later life
here, dying in the city in 2001. Among the permanent exhibits are panels representing
his books, a biographical timeline and personal effects, with some captions in English.
3
Museu da Cidade
Largo do Pelourinho 3 • Mon & Wed-Fri 10am-4pm • R$2; free on Thurs •
T
71 3321 1967
Housed in an attractive Pelourinho mansion next to the Casa de Jorge Amado, the
Museu da Cidade
offers similarly jaw-dropping views over the old town. The lower
levels are given over to paintings and sculpture by young city artists - some startlingly
good and some pretty dire - while luxuriously dressed dummies show off Carnaval
costumes from years gone by. There are models of candomblé deities and, on the first
floor, a room containing the personal belongings of the greatest Bahian poet,
Castro
Alves
, with some fascinating photographs from the beginning of the twentieth century.
Centro Cultural Solar Ferrão
Rua Gregório de Matos 45 • Tues-Fri noon-6pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm • R$1 •
T
71 3116 6743,
W
wipac.ba.gov.br
Housed in a beguiling seventeenth-century mansion, the
Centro Cultural Solar Ferrão
comprises four exceptional art collections. The
Museu Abelardo Rodrigues
- named
after its Pernambuco-based founder
-
houses a fascinating ensemble of Catholic art
from the sixteenth century onwards, while other galleries are dedicated to African art
(
Coleção Claudio Masella de Arte Africana
), the folk art and masks of Bahia and the
Northeast (
Coleção de Arte Popular
) and Brazilian musical instruments (
Musicais
Tradicionais Emília Biancardi
).
Ladeira do Carmo
From Largo do Pelourinho, a steep climb north up Ladeira do Carmo rewards you with
two more exceptional examples of colonial architecture: on the left is the
Convento da
Ordem Primeira do Carmo
, now the
Pestana Convento do Carmo
hotel (see p.220), open
to non-guests, and on the right the
Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do
Carmo
(currently being restored), which dates from 1828 - both are built around large
and beautiful cloisters, with a fine view across the old city at the back.
Museu da Arte Sacra
Rua do Sodré 276 • Mon-Fri 11.30am-5.30pm • R$5 •
T
71 3283 5600,
W
mas.ufba.br
Despite the concentration of riches in Cidade Alta, you'll have to leave the old city proper
to find the
Museu da Arte Sacra
, one of the finest museums of Catholic art in Brazil. It's
housed in the former Convento de Santa Teresa d'Ávila, a magnificent building built
between 1667 and 1676 with much of its original furniture and fittings still intact, and
with galleries on three floors surrounding a cloister. The chapel on the ground floor is
lavishly decorated with elaborate, gilded carvings, and it leads into a maze of small rooms
stuffed with a remarkably rich collection of colonial art, primarily dating from the
sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The collection of Baroque work by
José Teófilo de Jesus
and
José Joaquim da Rocha
, founders of the Bahian school of painting, is especially good.
