Barra is a neighborhood located in the southern zone of Salvador. The Barra is one of the most traditional neighborhoods of Salvador, the capital of Bahia, belonging to Administrative Region VI, of the same name. It has a unique geographical location in the world, where you can see both the birth and the sunsets at sea, it occupies the apex of the peninsula is where the city. Salvador's "postcard" neighborhood, Porto da Barra boasts a mix of old and new Bahia.
Barra has good shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, residences, green areas, events and historic monuments. The neighborhood is subdivided in the following areas: Jardim Brasil, Porto da Barra, Avenida Centenário, Ladeira da Barra. Barra concetrates a large number of old people and persons from many parts of Brazil and the world.
It is bathed by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and another is the Bay of All Saints in its internal part. And in preserving its landscape a considerable body of historical and architectural value to Brazil, and the Lighthouse Bar of his most famous icon, alongside the strengths of St. Mary and St. Diogo. Its beaches, especially the Porto da Barra (Port of Barra Beach) is frequented by various public and social classes, which will unfold in its white sand and calm water.
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At the beginning of the colonization of Brazil's territory, El-Rei Dom João III donated the hereditary captaincy of the Bay of All Saints to the donee Francisco Pereira Coutinho, which is installed in the region, in 1534, founding the Festival of Pereira in the vicinity where today is the slopes of Barra and constructing the "one hundred homes to residents" who, twelve years later still would be found by Thomas Cole at the time of the founding of the city, called Old Town, said in the letters of the Jesuits and the documents of the first governor, general. Where today is the church of Santo Antonio da Barra was built a fort, a castle made of pug and wood.
It also occurs in the first experiment of mixing culture with the native indigenous white European in the history of Brazil, taking in figures from Diogo Alvares Correia, the Caramuru and his wife, the Indian Catarina Paraguaçu the key historical elements, and this time named after the poet Gregório de Mattos of "the Adam of Kilwinning," father of civilization Bahia.
It was the current Porto da Barra Beach, which the governor-general Tomé de Sousa landed with men and material, founding the city of San Salvador da Bahia of All Saints in the year of 1549, the sixteenth century. At the time, the town had grown to more than a thousand inhabitants between Indians and Europeans, after the creation of the capital, the Old Town was slowly emptied until it disappears completely, in the seventeenth century.
Until the nineteenth century, remains as a suburb of the city, made after a spa in March ítimo in the first half of the twentieth century, and after the transformation of the Path of the Council on Seven Avenue, begins the process of consolidation as neighborhood important. In 1942, the building is constructed Oceânica (Oceanic), its most famous landmark of modern architecture. The neighborhood received during 20th century, a large number of immigrants from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland and Russia.
As part of the circuit called the Traditional Bahian carnival, that "Barra-Ondina circuit" begins at the point of initial plan of the Avenue Seven September in front of the Church of St. Anthony's Bar and has many five star hotels which are renowned nationally and internationally. It is essentially a neighborhood home, but count on a large network of small shops, and many bars along the shore.
The Barra Shopping, the third largest shopping center of the capital, is also located in this neighborhood, becoming a pole of attraction for its services and various options.
The neighborhood of Barra has a unique location, is situated at the tip of the peninsula which is the city of Salvador. Its main access is given by the Centennial Avenue to the west, the Oceanic Avenue to the south and avenues Seven September, also called the Ladeira da Barra and the Princess Elizabeth, to the north.
The Princess Elizabeth Avenue is the most central and passes through the tiny neighborhood of Barra Avenue. Parallel to it following the street Cézar Zama, which at one time becomes called the Marquis of Caravelas and street Afonso Celso and other major local roads such as the Marques de Leon (not Marquis, as some may assume).
The neighborhood of Barra is confined to the districts of Vitória, Graça and Barra Avenida (North), Ondina and Chame-Chame (the east), the Atlantic Ocean (the south) and the Bay of All Saints (east). This location makes the bar one of the few places in Brazil where Continental is the sunset at sea.
With the whole coast almost surrounded by reefs, the city has in Porto da Barra the only place where the landing of small boats in safety is possible. With the shape of a small bay, the port was chosen by donee Francisco Pereira Coutinho to found the Villa of the Captaincy of Bahia. Known as Pereira's Villa, it received the ships that made trade with the native commanded by Diogo Álvares "Caramuru" in the first half f the 16th century. There, general governor Tomé de Souza (1549), and the soldiers of Companhia das Índias Ocidentais that invaded the city in 1624 also landed off. A commemorative mark, built in 1949, points out the place where Tomé de Souza landed off.
The beach faces Itaparica Island on the Bahia de Todos os Santos, All Saints Bay. The waters are calm, waveless, clear and warm, perfect for swimming and sunbathing. Porto da Barra beach is the only Brazilian beach where the sunsets over the water and Itaparica Island in the distance. It is not uncommon for the late afternoon beachgoers to applaud the spectacular sunsets in a standing ovation to a splendid day and an enticing evening to come.
First fort built in the city, it had the function of hindering the enemies entrance in Todos os Santos Bay. Initiated in 1582, it got the shape of an irregular polygon with ten sides, six salient and four re-entering angles. Its current dimensions, however, just came about in the 17th century. The first wooden lighthouse, which functioned with whale oil, was made in 1696 and it indicated the entrance of the bay, alerting to the dangers of the coral reef or sandbank of Santo Antônio, the current iron lighthouse, working with electricity, was built in 1836. In the fort, there are a restaurant, a bar and the Nautical Museum, with exhibitions of old maps, navigation equipment, models of vessels, artillery pieces and remains of shipwrecks that happened in Barra, mainly Galeão Sacramento's.
Built to protect Porto da Barra from the invaders, crossing fires with Fort São Diogo, the fort already existed when Companhia das Índias Ocidentais tried to occupy Salvador for the second time, in 1638. With seven sides, four salient and three re-entering angles, in design is of Italian type from the end of the 18th century.