Sunset
Over the Atlantic.
Leandro Neumann Ciuffo from Catania, Italy — CC BY 2.0 · Iron Pedreira Alves from Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil — CC BY 2.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0
Farol da Barra, the Barra lighthouse, is the popular name of the Fort of Santo Antônio da Barra at the tip of the peninsula Salvador stands on, where the Bay of All Saints meets the Atlantic. A first fort was raised here between 1583 and 1587 to guard the harbour of the colonial capital, and the present fort was built between 1696 and 1702; the Brazilian Navy counts it as the country's first military building and its lighthouse as the oldest in the Americas. Inside is the Nautical Museum of Bahia, with charts, navigation instruments, ship models and objects raised from wrecks at the mouth of the bay, and its walls look out over the sea on three sides. It is best known for sunset: every evening people gather on the grass around the fort and on the new seating in front to watch the sun go down into the sea, and applaud as it disappears. On either side are Barra and Porto da Barra beaches, the latter one of the calmest in the city for swimming.
Over the Atlantic.
Inside the fort.
A calm beach for swimming.
Largo do Farol da Barra, Barra
At Farol da Barra, where people gather every evening around the fort and applaud as the sun sets into the sea; watching from outside is free.