Porto Seguro - Attractions

Attractions

Night Leisure The Passarela do Álcool Passageway is a famous spot in the city. Here, visitors find the famous "Capeta” drink, can have dinner with live music and buy gifts made in the region; or visitors may go to Capitania dos Peixes, on Pacu Island, with ecological landscapes and an assorted variety of music genres and ambiences, near giant aquariums.

Historical Downtown Area The historical site in the Cidade Alta area is a National Heritage Monument put under government trust by a Federal Decree since 1973. It was one of the first towns in Brazil and played an important role during the first years of European colonization. It includes three churches and around 40 buildings (among private residential houses and public institutions), restored by the State Government for the 500th anniversary celebration of Brazilian “discovery”. At night the whole area is bathed by a special lighting system, offering an impressive view.

Monte Pascoal National Park Created in 1961 to preserve the place where Brazil was “discovered” by Portuguese warriors. It includes swamp areas, salt marshes, river marshes and a coastline around the rocky, high and round hill, considered the first point of land to be seen by the Portuguese traveler Pedro Álvares Cabral’s crew. It extends over an area of 144.8 km², including the Pataxó tribe’s indigenous protection land. Besides its historical importance, it also offers protection to one of the last stretches of Atlantic forest in the Northeastern area of Brazil. The area is aimed at preserving valuable woods such as Brazil wood, and still hosts many species of animals threatened by extinction, such as “collar sloth”, “black burs”, among others.

Recife de Fora Sea Park It was the first city owned park in Brazil. During low tide, visitor can view a wide range of coral reefs, fish and many sea species. Tours are available on schooners.

Glória Hillock Here, visitors find the ruins of what many consider to be the São Francisco Church, the where Ynaiá was buried, an Indian woman who died for the love of a crewmember of Portuguese navigator Gonçalo Coelho‘s fleet. People say the São Francisco Church was the first one built in Brazil, in baroque style, probably in 1504, whose ruins date to 1730.

The Nossa Senhora da Penha Matrix Church Located on Pero de Campos Tourinho Square, in Cidade Alta, it was built at the 18th century’s end. It comprises an aisle, a main chapel, a sacristy and a bell tower.

Jaqueira Indigenous Protection Reservation A huge jackfruit tree trunk, tumbled down by nature itself, represents the return to one’s origins and acts as a historical and cultural reference to honor the ancestral fathers and mothers of Pataxó families who recently moved into this 8.27 km² Indian protection area. Their huts, spread around original Atlantic Forest woods, keeps original old formats, giving visitors the impression of being back 500 years in time to pre-Columbian Brazil.

Pirata Island It is considered as one of the most sophisticated aquarium complexes in South America. Pirata Island is a thematic leisure center combining nightlife infrastructure and environmental and sea biodiversity protection, with giant aquariums. It is located on Pacuio Island, on Buranhém River and access is available exclusively by boat.

The “Discovery” Outdoors Museum An outdoors, natural museum, whose “art galleries” are its beaches, valleys and natural trails and whose “collection” is a set of geographical formations and traditional villages, disposed as art works in permanent exhibition, engraved in very ancient media, which are spread along the 130 km length of Bahia’s historical southern coastline.

Terravista Golf Course The golf course, designed by architect Dan Blankenship, offers 18 holes and demanded US$ 4 million in investment to be built. The project follows the most sophisticated and up to date trends in golf course building in the world today, as done in California, USA, and in Algarve, Portugal – all of which look very similar in terms of weather and geographical conditions, for all three golf courses are close to sea areas.