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Second only to Rio in the magnificence of its natural setting on the mouth of the enormous bay of Todos os Santos, SALVADOR is one of that select band of cities which has an electricity you feel from the moment you arrive. Its foundation in 1549 marked the beginning of the permanent occupation of the country by the Portuguese , though it wasn't easy for them. The Caeté Indians killed and ate both the first governor and the first bishop before succumbing, and Salvador was later the scene of a great battle in 1624, when the Dutch destroyed the Portuguese fleet in the bay and took the town by storm, only to be forced out again within a year by a joint Spanish and Portuguese fleet.

Much of the plantation wealth of the Recôncavo was used to adorn the city with imposing public buildings, ornate squares and, above all, churches. Today, Salvador is a large, modern city, but significant chunks of it are still recognizably colonial. Taken as a whole it doesn't have the unsullied calm of, say, Olinda but many of its individual churches, monasteries and convents are magnificent, the finest colonial buildings anywhere in Brazil.

The other factor that marks Salvador out is immediately obvious - most of the population is black. Salvador was Brazil's main slave port, and the survivors of the brutal journey from the Portuguese Gold Coast and Angola were immediately packed off to city construction gangs or the plantations of the Recôncavo; today, their descendants make up the bulk of the population. African influences are everywhere. Salvador is the cradle of candomblé and umbanda, Afro-Brazilian religious cults that have millions of devotees across Brazil. The city has a marvellous local cuisine , much imitated in other parts of the country, based on African ingredients like palm oil, peanuts and coconut milk. And Salvador has possibly the richest artistic tradition of any Brazilian city; only Rio can rival it.

A disproportionate number of Brazil's leading writers and poets either were either born or lived in Salvador, including Jorge Amado, the most widely translated Brazilian novelist, and Vinícius de Morães, Brazil's best-known modern poet. The majority of the great names who made Brazilian music famous hail from the city - João Gilberto, the leading exponent, with Tom Jobim, of bossa nova; Astrud Gilberto, whose quavering version of The Girl from Ipanema was a global hit; Dorival Caymmi, the patriarch of Brazilian popular music; Caetano Veloso, the founder of tropicalismo; the singers Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa; and Gilberto Gil, who was at one time secretary of culture in the city government. The city's music is still as rich and innovative as ever, and bursts out every year in a Carnaval that many think is the best in Brazil.