Olinda

Introducing Olinda

Picturesque Olinda, set around a tree-covered hill, is the historic and artsy counterpart to the big-city hubbub of Recife. It’s full of galleries, artisans’ workshops, museums, lovely colonial churches, music in the streets, and there’s always some kind of celebration in the works. With twisting streets of colorful old houses and gorgeous vistas over trees, church towers and red-tile roofs, this is one of the best-preserved colonial cities in Brazil. It has some lovely pousadas and makes a much more tranquil base for exploring the area than the bigger neighbor that it overlooks.

Olinda was the original capital of Pernambuco, founded in 1535. Sacked and burnt with all its Catholic churches by the Calvinist Dutch in 1631, it was rebuilt but lost its ascendancy to Recife in the 18th century. Although many buildings were originally constructed in the 16th century, most of what you see today dates from a later period.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009