The Cycle of Suburbs

the urban configuration of Salvador and its surroundings (1870-1940)

Abstract

In the present paper we present some aspects of what was a historic period in the city of Salvador, capital of Bahia (Brazil), which we located in general lines between 1870 and 1940, which corresponded to a territorial arrangement of its urban core and the immediate surroundings chosen, together with localities in the Bay of All Saints, as summer resorts. In the 19th century, those months out of the town was called “passar as festas” (“go by the festivals”), and not by chance, as this calendar was marked at the beginning and at the end by large urban festivals, and, in its run, by celebrations that took place in the suburbs, some of regional importance, like the festival devoted to Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. This constellation of localities was coerced by the swinging movement in the cadence of the large festivals, within a public transport infrastructure, with a common daily life, marked by intents of modern wordliness. Where each locality, its residents and vacationers, competed with each other, in various ways, within the stage constituted by such festivals. Here we emphasize that king of score of the festivals and their importance in this urbanization of the suburbs.