Pierre Verger photos
Salvador through his lens.
Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · MPMrocha — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0
At the southern end of Porto da Barra, the beach Salvador's people love most, the small Santa Maria fort, also called the «Fortim», sits on a rocky spur joined to land by a narrow causeway. It keeps much of its 17th-century structure, including its broad stone curtain walls, has a heptagonal plan, and was part of the chain of forts guarding the entrance to the Bay of All Saints; the national heritage body listed it in 1938. After years of neglect the city of Salvador restored it, and it now houses the «Pierre Verger Space for Bahian Photography», devoted to the French photographer and ethnographer Pierre Verger, who lived in Salvador and spent decades recording its daily life and Afro-Brazilian culture, alongside work by Bahian photographers. The pictures hang in the fort's stone rooms, while the old cannon still stand on the terrace above the sea. It opens Wednesday to Monday, roughly 11:00-19:00, and closes on Tuesdays; tickets are about R$20 and R$10 reduced, and may also cover the «Espaço Carybé de Artes» in the São Diogo fort at the other end of the beach. Visit before sunset, when the sun sinks into the bay in front of the walls.
Salvador through his lens.
A heptagon.
Over the bay.
End of Porto da Barra beach, Barra, Salvador
Porto da Barra BeachPorto da Barra is a short beach, about 300 metres, in Salvador's Barra district 2 minutes walk4.5
Farol da Barra (Santo Antônio da Barra Fort)Farol da Barra, the Barra lighthouse, is the popular name of the Fort of Santo A8 minutes walk4.7
Museu de Arte da BahiaThe Bahia Museum of Art is the oldest museum in the state, founded in 1918 and a18 minutes walk4.8The Pierre Verger Space for Bahian Photography, showing the French photographer's work and that of Bahian photographers; it opens Wednesday to Monday.