The Mercado da Ribeira is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Olinda, dating to the 16th century when it served as a trading post for goods passing through the port. The long stone building with its arched facade has been repurposed over the centuries; it is now home to a collection of workshops, galleries, craft stalls, and small bars spread across its interior and spilling out onto the surrounding square.
The mix of tenants changes, but the Mercado typically holds ceramics workshops, woodcarving studios, painters selling originals, and vendors of regional craft — rendas (lacework), leather goods, and cordel literature, the illustrated pamphlet poetry tradition of Northeast Brazil. The bars under the arches are good places to stop in the late afternoon with a beer or a caldo de cana (sugarcane juice). The building is more interesting architecturally than many of Olinda's churches, and the commercial activity inside it gives it a lively character that the museums and convents do not.