Avenida Contorno in Salvador was inaugurated in 1962, it was designed by the architect Diogenes Rebouças and connected Campo Grande to Cidade Baixa.
Gamboa de Baixo can be considered one of the most privileged locations in Salvador. Surrounded by a private beach and with a unique view of the sunset on Itaparica Island.
Gamboa – home to the communities of Solar do Unhão and Gamboa de Cima e de Baixo – is bordered by Avenida Contorno and embraced by Baía de Todos os Santos.
Wedged between the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAM) and the slopes of Campo Grande, is Gamboa de Baixo beach, as it came to be called by the local community.
On the ground, grains give way to stones. Surrounded by a coastal community, inhabited by fishermen, the place has a unique architectural composition.
One of the main connections between the upper city and the lower city, Avenida Lafayette Coutinho, known as Avenida Contorno, is on the shores of Baía de Todos-os-Santos.
The success of the site can be explained not by the function of connecting city neighborhoods, but by the tendency to offer the public attractive spaces.
In addition, the Contorno region has been visited by celebrities such as Anitta, Rafa Kalimann, Iza and Ivete Sangalo. The space also hosted the recording of scenes from the soap opera “Segundo Sol”, in 2018.
Avenida Contorno in Salvador BA03:20
Community of Solar do Unhão in Salvador25:49
Museum of Modern Art of Bahia - MAM02:55
MAM beach in Salvador BA01:55
The 4 tourist attractions on Contorno in Salvador
1. Praia da Preguiça: from sports to carnival block
According to information from historians, part of the region around Praia da Preguiça was considered an area of the Soteropolitan elite between the 18th and 19th century. Mansions and townhouses were requested by those with high purchasing power. Today, in the 21st century, the beach is considered an open-air sports center.
Footvolley, canoeing, diving and recreational fishing classes take place there. “Praia da Preguiça has a lot of quality due to its paradisiacal beauty provided by the sea”, explains Clayton Correia, footvolley teacher.
The beach has also become a place that hosts multiple events, such as the “Banho de Mar à Fantasia da Praia da Preguiça”, a pre-carnival block. The procession, started in the 1930s, was interrupted in the 1990s and returned in 2012. After the pandemic, the block paraded again this year.
Another attraction of Preguiça is the restaurant “Mirante Tropical da Ladeira”, located on Ladeira da Preguiça and overlooking Praia da Preguiça. The space has already received celebrities such as Lázaro Ramos, Dira Paes and Clara Buarque.
The venture operates inside an old mansion, which was also the setting for the recording of the music video “Baile de Favelinha”, by the rap duo LT and singer Léo Santana.
2. Praia do MAM unites nature, culture and art
With crystalline and calm waters, Praia do MAM is a leisure area and tourist spot in the region.
Located between the containment stones of Bahia Marina and the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAM), the space is ideal for those who want to appreciate works of art and sculptures by Mário Cravo and Carybé.
As it is a small beach, the place is subject to capacity and is open from 8:30 am to 17:XNUMX pm. The responsibility and control of the site are the Museum of Modern Art itself.
The space also stores works by artists, such as Mestre Didi, Juarez Paraíso, Emanuel Araújo, José Resende, Siron Franco and Ivens Machado, on the small access path to the beach sand.
Among the instagrammable spots are the sculptures of Yemanjá and the Venus carved in iron.
3. Community of Solar do Unhão
On Avenida Contorno, it's worth getting to know the beauties that mark the Community of Solar do Unhão, a place that has graffiti as a trademark, and overflows with art and culture through the paintings of the Street Art Museum of Salvador (Musas).
The community is also known for its beautiful sea and its views of the Baía de Todos os Santos. Great culinary options and the possibility of seeing different types of art also set the tone of the place.
In addition, Solar do Unhão also receives visits from plastic artists who go to the community to express themselves.
“A community that prepared itself to receive people in a super pleasant way. We call attention for putting our arts, our graffiti in this different way. This investment in art, along with all the other things around it, generates this attraction in the community”, comments plastic artist Júlio Costas, a local resident.
4. House of Quinta do Unhão
The Solar do Unhão and Chapel Nossa Senhora da Conceição, or House and Chapel of the Old Quinta do Unhão, or simply Quinta do Unhão.
It is an architectural complex formed by the manor house, Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, landing pier, fountain, aqueduct, fountain, warehouses and a still with tanks.
On the access bridge to the manor there are bars of tiles with baroque ornamentation, produced in Lisbon in the years 1770 to 1780. The fountain, originally fed by the aqueduct, is a baroque piece in dark sandstone, formed by a frown from which the water gushes, and two superimposed shells.
Description of the building / complex:
- Implantation: The set is formed by the manor house, chapel and sheds, implanted in the embankment installed to the sea of Baía de Todos os Santos.
- Occupation: The complex occupies an area with a remarkable landscape, bathed by a small pebble beach, next to a hillside and the group of popular houses in Gamboa de Baixo. Close to the region are also the arches that supported Avenida Contorno. Even during the period in which it functioned as an agro-industrial complex, the information mentions that the Solar had a functional distribution characteristic of the colonial period, the ground floor used as a service, the first floor occupied by the family and the attic used as a dormitory for servants.
- Number of floors: 1 the 3.
- Organization: Manor house in stone masonry and brick arches on the ground floor.
- Icing: The mansions that make up the complex have gabled and hipped roof coverage.
- frames: The large colonial-style sash windows that surround the mansions allow for greater use of light inside the environments.
- Architectural style and decorative elements: The buildings have an architecture mostly in colonial style.
Historical data
- The set acted as an agro-industrial complex of the same type as the sugar mills, with a large house, chapel and slave quarters. The extensive wharf and warehouses assume that its function was to collect and export the production of sugar mills from the Recôncavo.
- In 1690, judge Pedro de Unhão Castelo Branco lived in the area.
- In the early 1700s it was bought by José Pires de Carvalho e Albuquerque.
- At the beginning of the 1928th century, the property belonged to Antônio Joaquim Pires de Carvalho and Albuquerque, after a succession of owners until XNUMX, the property was sold to the State.
Further information
- The set underwent some important restorations after purchase by the State:
- 1946: Stabilization, conservation and cleaning works.
- 1960: Work begins on Avenida Contorno, whose project foresaw one of the lanes passing between the Solar and the chapel and another that would cause the extinction of the aqueduct and the fountain. After reactions from the press, the architect Diógenes Rebouças proposes an alternative layout for the avenue.
- 1962 / 1963: The State Government carries out a restoration to house the Museum of Popular Art of Bahia, with a project by the architect Lina Bo Bardi, including the installation of a helical staircase and the replacement of plaster with chapiscado in some pavilions.
History and Landmarks of Avenida Contorno or Avenida Lafayette Coutinho in Salvador BA
