The Pelourinho is the dense, painted, cobbled heart of colonial Salvador, sitting on a bluff 60 metres above the bay. The whole neighbourhood was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985 and given a controversial restoration in the 1990s that displaced thousands of residents. What remains is the densest concentration of 17th- and 18th-century baroque architecture in the Americas.
The streets are best walked in the late afternoon when the light turns the pastel facades luminous and the capoeira circles start in the Terreiro de Jesus. Avoid carrying anything you cannot afford to lose; pickpocketing is the standard complaint. By night the area is busiest around Rua Gregório de Matos and the Largo do Pelourinho itself, with live music spilling out of half a dozen bars at once.