Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasília

6. Revisiting the Pelourinho: Preservation, Cultural Heritage, and Place Marketing in Salvador, Bahia

chapter 6 Revisiting the Pelourinho Preservation, Cultural Heritage, and Place Marketing in Salvador, Bahia Ana Fernandes and Marco A.A. de Filgueiras Gomes Tourism has been a goal in the development plans of the Brazilian northeastern state of Bahia since 1959. Bahia is where the first Portuguese arrived in 1500 and where they founded the city of Salvador in 1549, which was to become Brazil’s first capital during most of the colonial period—from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The recôncavo bahiano—the region of the state where Salvador is located—became Brazil’s most dynamic urban network of the colonial period (CLAN/OTI 1970). In the late 1960s, a Brazilian national policy linking historic preservation to tourism development was delineated to overcome economic stagnation and reverse urban decay, particularly in cities directly linked to the colonial economic cycles. This move encouraged state initiatives such as Bahia’s Plano de Turismo do Recôncavo (Tourist Plan of the Recôncavo) in 1970, and at the national level the Programa de Cidades Históricas (Program of Historical Cities) in 1973. This important program promoted projects and investments for recovering historic urban and architectural complexes with tourism potential, beginning with the centuries-old cities of the Braz­ ilian Northeast. Within this context Salvador held an exceptional position for its rich colonial architectural heritage, its extensive beachfront, and its powerful and complex culture (religious practices, festivals, music, cooking, and the like). Therefore, policies concerning the preservation and renovation of Salvador’s historic heritage have been in development for more than forty years; a particular target of these efforts has been an area in the old center known as the Pelourinho. The name originated in colonial times, when it referred to the pillory, a stone column located in a prominent plaza where criminals and rebels were publicly shackled and 144 punished. In time, the name came to refer to the plaza—Largo do Pelourinho—and to its surroundings. Since the Pelourinho is the popular designation for the area, we refer to it by that name, avoiding other terms with a strong dose of ambiguity such as “traditional center,” “old center,” or “colonial center.” The city center is constituted of a low city where the port and commercial and banking facilities are concentrated, and a high city where administrative, retail, and service establishments prevail. The terms high and low are literal, since the high city is located atop a cliff that overlooks the harbor, or low city (fig. 6.1). Several different types of government interventions from the 1950s to the 1980s were unsuccessful in reversing the Pelourinho’s social and physical deterioration, despite its rich historical and cultural character. In 1992, however, in a burst of national and local publicity, the state of Bahia announced a huge operation to revitalize and rehabilitate the area. The project succeeded in promoting economic, social, and Figure 6.1. Aerial view of the Pelourinho and the historic center of Salvador, Bahia. (Photo by José Carlos de Almeida Filho) Revisiting the Pelourinho 145 physical redevelopment on a scale never before seen in the area, with effects that we are only now beginning to understand. In the first part of this essay we explain why Salvador’s historic center and the Pelourinho area were never successfully integrated into the development projects implemented since the 1950s, and we discuss the policies, interventions, and cultural practices used in attempts to renovate the historic areas. In the second part we discuss the process and major elements of the 1992 project for the Pelourinho, which was in its seventh stage in 2004. Finally, we analyze the project’s role in urban revitalization and in contributing to Salvador’s cultural consumption, and we conclude by discussing the limits of cultural strategies for urban revitalization within contemporary urban planning. Preservation Policies in the Traditional Center A constituent of Salvador’s center located north of the high city, the Pelourinho area constitutes one of Brazil’s greatest urban and architectural complexes of the colonial period and the nineteenth century. Totaling approximately 31.2 acres, it experienced its greatest prominence through the mid-nineteenth century when a significant portion of the urban residences of elite families from Salvador and the surrounding region were located there, in addition to religious institutions, services, and small retail shops. Since its apex, the area has deteriorated significantly, but its historic architectural aspects have always attracted a significant...