Stone warehouses
A maze of passages.
Raniel Souza — CC BY 4.0 · GLandovsky — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GLandovsky — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GLandovsky — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GLandovsky — CC BY-SA 4.0
Porto das Barcas, «Port of the Boats», is the historic quarter on the bank of the Igaraçu river in Parnaíba, once the city's first gateway in and out. Its story began in the 18th century, when the area became an important trading centre in the north-east: large warehouses were built here by enslaved people to store carnauba wax and babassu shipped to Europe, carrying Parnaíba's name around the world. What remains are 18th-century stone ruins forming a maze of passages, listed by the national heritage institute in 2011 as part of Parnaíba's historic and landscape ensemble. Today it holds craft shops, ecotourism agencies and guesthouses and is a meeting point for locals and visitors; strolling it is free.
A maze of passages.
The waterfront.
Local shops.
Banks of the Igaraçu river, Parnaíba, Piauí
It was Parnaíba's 18th-century trading port, storing carnauba wax and babassu for export to Europe; it has been listed since 2011.