The Iracema Statue on Fortaleza's seafront turns a literary figure into a city emblem. Iracema, from Jose de Alencar's nineteenth-century novel, has become shorthand for Ceara's romantic coastal identity, and the statue is one of the easiest places to see that symbolism made public.
It is a quick stop rather than a destination in itself, but it works well while walking Praia de Iracema. Come near sunset, when the promenade is busy and the sculpture feels less like an isolated monument than part of Fortaleza's beachside theatre.