Salvador

Salvador is a city in Brazil, a big country in South America. It sits beside a huge bay of the ocean.

Long ago, Salvador was the first capital of Brazil.

Salvador is the capital of the state of Bahia, on the northeast coast of Brazil. UNESCO says it was founded in 1549 on a small peninsula between Todos os Santos Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and that it was the first capital of Portuguese America until 1763.

Brazil's 2022 census counted 2,417,678 people in Salvador's urban area.

Universalis: city of Brazil, capital of the state of Bahia, formerly São Salvador or Bahia; a very important city through the whole colonial period and the capital of Brazil until the 18th century; founded in 1549 by the Portuguese in the northern, particularly well-sheltered part of Todos os Santos Bay. UNESCO: first capital of Portuguese America from 1549 to 1763.

IBGE census counts of the urban area (via City Population): 2,442,102 (2000), 2,674,923 (2010), 2,417,678 (2022); rank 5 among Brazil's cities in City Population's 2025 table (its own calculation).

It is nighttime in Salvador. Lights shine in the windows of tall buildings. Far away, tall cranes stand by the water.

This photo of Salvador's lower town, the Cidade Baixa, was taken at night on 7 December 2014. Office and apartment blocks glow below the camera, and beyond them the tall cranes of the port are lit up beside the dark water of the bay. Lights twinkle along the shore across the water.

UNESCO explains that Salvador has two levels: an upper town on top of a high escarpment, and a lower town below it, where business has always gone on around the port.

Commons: own work by Caioviniciuscosta, Wiki Loves Monuments 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0; the photographer's description names the 'Conjunto Arquitetônico, Urbanístico e Paisagístico da Cidade Baixa de Salvador' (listed heritage ensemble of the lower town); date 7 December 2014. The current version was cropped by another user in 2015.

UNESCO: an upper city of a defensive, administrative and residential nature overlooks the lower city, where commercial activities revolve around the port; the Cidade Alta is perched atop an 85-m-high escarpment. Universalis gives the escarpment as about sixty meters, with the port and commercial district on the coastal strip below.

Old streets in Salvador have houses painted in bright colors. Some neighborhoods are next to sandy beaches.

UNESCO says many streets in Salvador's historic center are lined with brightly colored houses, often decorated with fine stucco work. Pelourinho, one of its districts, still follows its 16th-century street plan.

Universalis says the upper town remains the city's administrative and cultural center, with universities and museums, while homes and tourist areas have grown up along the Atlantic beaches to the north.

UNESCO: the historic center's main districts are Sé, Pelourinho, Misericórdia, São Bento, Taboão, Carmo and Santo Antônio; Pelourinho keeps its 16th-century plan, a dense group of monuments and a uniform style of building; 16th-century public spaces include the Municipal Plaza, the Largo Terreiro de Jesus and the Largo de São Francisco; many streets of brightly colored houses with fine stucco work.

Universalis: the upper town, the first urban site, remains the administrative, cultural (universities, museums) and religious center; residential and tourist districts developed along the Atlantic beaches to the north.