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The town of Candeias, located on the Bay of All Saints, attracts thousands of faithful and revellers every year during the religious festival of Our Lady of Candeias, a celebration that mixes the sacred and the profane, with lots of joy and entertainment.
The colonisation of the region began in the 16th century with the sesmarias that gave rise to the engenho de Matoim, owned by the Antunes family, and the engenhos do Caboto and Freguesia. All suffered major setbacks during the invasion by the Dutch, who set fire to the plantations.
The town sprang up around 1640, when the Jesuits set up the Pitanga Mill and built a chapel in honour of the Virgin Mary. At the time, news spread that a blind woman had regained her sight after bathing in the waters of a stream near the priests’ mill.
The supposed miracle attracted many people and the village grew around the stream, which, once channelled, became the Fonte dos Milagres (Fountain of Miracles). The expansion of the chapel gave rise to the Mother Church of Our Lady of Candeias.
The place became known as Candeias, a place of religiosity and pilgrimages, with a population made up mainly of artisans and saint-makers, a picture that remained unchanged over the following centuries.
From 1941 onwards, with the discovery of oil wells and the presence of Petrobras in the region, the town’s profile changed.
The offer of jobs increased the population enough for the village to gain the status of an emancipated municipality in 1958. Like the other towns in the Recôncavo, Candeias retains vestiges of colonisation and its festivals attract large crowds.
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History of Candeias BA
The origin of the municipality of Candeias dates back to the middle of the 16th century, from the lands known as Matoim, an important sesmaria, as it was home to the Caboto Sugar Mills and the Parish of Nossa Senhora de Encarnação do Passé.
The name Candeias comes from devotion to the Virgin of Candelaria, also known as Our Lady of Candeias. Oral tradition suggests another explanation: the abundance of wood called candeia, used by the pilgrims to make torches as they climbed the cliff towards the Mother Church.
The region experienced the height of the sugar cane cycle, which was fundamental in the formation of Bahia and the Recôncavo, moulding its ethical, cultural and socio-economic structure. Next to the Freguesia sugar mill, the village of Caboto sprang up, focusing on sugar transport, commerce and fishing. The sugar mills marked the flourishing of the sugar economy, especially in the 1560s.
In Passé, the district is home to the Church of Nossa Senhora da Encarnação do Passé, one of the oldest in Bahia, representing the transition between rural chapels and churches at the end of the 17th century.
With the growth of sugar plantations, there was an increase in the number of mills and hamlets in the region.
The introduction of the steam engine boosted the creation of mills, transforming the local reality, and many mill owners ended up selling or abandoning their properties.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Pitanga Mill in Nossa Senhora das Candeias flourished, connected to the capital by a railway line. A remarkable fact from this period was the story of a blind child who was cured by bathing in the waters of the Fonte dos Milagres (Fountain of Miracles), near the church.
From this episode onwards, the village of Nossa Senhora das Candeias was visited by pilgrims from all over the Recôncavo Baiano. This ritual was repeated year after year, with the visits of the pilgrims totally changing the reality of the village.
The pilgrims used the houses of the locals, which became boarding houses, offering meals and rest. Trade flourished with the sale of meals, religious souvenirs and fires.
The locals even sold samples of the town’s soil, as the pilgrims believed that after the blessing in the Church of Our Lady of Candeias, this souvenir had healing effects.
They also sold bottles of water from the Fountain of Miracles, which the pilgrims eagerly fought over to take back as a souvenir.
The industrial city, which was born out of the sugar mills, took on its current shape thanks to oil prospecting and refining activities.
The city has an irregular topography, with many slopes in the centre and neighbourhoods, and a territory to the south similar to that of Ancient Greece, with interspersed areas that facilitated the creation of several ports. The town established itself as an important centre in the Recôncavo.
The real change, however, came in 1941, when oil was discovered in the municipality on the properties of local farmers.
In 1930, two selfless Bahians, Manoel Bastos, a topographer, civil engineer and self-taught geological researcher, and Oscar Cordeiro, then president of the Bahia commodities exchange, believed in the existence of oil in Bahia. They persisted until the black gold gushed out in Lobato, a suburb of Salvador, without much initial success. However, the oil did manifest itself in Candeias.
After the first sign in Lobato, the extractors decided to go after the accumulation in Candeias.
The same rig used in the Lobato well, the diesel-powered No. 04 Oilwell, was moved to Candeias, arriving on a trailer with a winch and with the help of several oxen. Drilling was carried out at Fazenda São Paulinho, owned by Colonel José Barbosa Ferreira, and on 29 June 1941, black gold gushed out, resulting in the birth of well C-01 (Candeias-01), the first commercial oil well in Brazil.
This attracted the attention of the then President of the Republic, Getúlio Vargas, who visited the town on 23 June 1952 and showed his oil-smeared hand in a historic photo.
From that moment on, the arraial was completely changed. The town was invaded by groups of labourers, both skilled and unskilled, from all over. Oxen were used to pull the oil rigs, and so the town of Candeias was born.
Finally, on 14 August 1958, Candeias was emancipated from Salvador, and this date is celebrated every year in the municipality.
Tourist attractions in Candeias BA
1 Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora das Candeias (Our Lady of Candeias Parish Church)
The church, built in 1894, belongs to the Franciscan Friars Minor. Our Lady of Candeias, associated with fertility, purification by water, illumination by fire and the cult of Iemanjá, is celebrated on 2 February in conjunction with the Carnival cry.
The religious festival of Our Lady of Candeias, which reaches its peak on this date, attracts thousands of faithful and revellers every year, in a mixture of sacred and profane, filled with joy and excitement.
The festivities are also famous for the local Micareta, to the sound of electric trios.
2. Candeias Supply Centre
The popular food market also sells handicrafts. It’s a great place to get to know the gastronomic peculiarities of the region and to pick up an original gift.
3. Freguesia Mill – Wanderley de Pinho Museum
The listed architectural complex is also known as Engenho da Fábrica because, as well as the big house, the slave quar ters and the chapel, modelled on 18th century buildings, it was also home to a sugar factory.
The mill belonged to the Baron of Cotegipe (1815-1889) and was inherited by his grandson, José Wanderley de Araújo Pinho, patron of the museum that now operates there. The museum’s collection includes paintings, sculptures, porcelain, furniture and farm machinery.
The mill is located in Aratu Bay, in the middle of the Atlantic Forest, in an environmental preservation area.
História do Museu Wanderley Pinho em Candeias BA
4. Fountain of Miracles and Our Lady of Candeias Sanctuary
By the fountain, there is a large influx of pilgrims arriving to pay their promises. There is a room for ex-votos and, in the neighbourhood, there is a shop selling religious articles.
5. Engenho do Matoim
The first buildings of the big house, slave quar ters and church were built by the Antunes family, who were awarded the sesmaria in 1584. This family of New Christians was the target of the Inquisition between 1591 and 1595.
According to Angelo Adriano Faria de Assis, a researcher at Fluminense Federal University, in the Revista Brasileira de História (2002), Heitor Antunes maintained a clandestine synagogue on the premises of the engenho.
When he died, his wife Ana Rodrigues buried him according to Jewish rituals, an act that landed her in prison, where the now octogenarian woman died. Even after her death, she was tried and condemned by the Tribunal of the Holy Office.
The mill was destroyed by the Dutch in 1624 and rebuilt in the 18th century by the Rocha Pitta family. The house and chapel that remain on the property, which are now listed, are open to visitors.
6. Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation of Passé
Located on a natural viewpoint overlooking the Bay of All Saints, this 17th century church, now in ruins, is considered one of the largest and oldest in Bahia.
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