Largo do Pelourinho

The painted central square of the upper city

The sloping, pastel-painted square at the heart of the Pelourinho is what everyone photographs. The buildings step up the slope in pinks, blues, yellows, and whites, with the church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos at the foot and the Casa de Jorge Amado museum at the top.

The square fills with capoeira circles and drumming groups most afternoons, and on Tuesdays the steps host the Olodum drumming group rehearsals — a serious not-to-be-missed event. By night the music continues in the surrounding bars. Be careful with phones and bags in the crowds.

things to do sight pelourinho
A story
The yellow Casa de Jorge Amado at the top of the square belonged to Brazil's most-read 20th-century novelist, who used the Pelourinho as the setting for nearly all his Bahia novels. The cobbles at the foot of the square are the original 17th-century stones, polished by three centuries of bare feet.

Other places in Things to Do