Fortaleza

The Portuguese first tried to settle this stretch of coast in 1603, when Pero Coelho de Souza built a fort and a short-lived settlement called Nova Lisboa. The Dutch, who had invaded north-eastern Brazil, took the Portuguese fort in 1637, and in 1649 the Dutch West India Company under Matthias Beck opened a new fortress, Schoonenborch, beside the Pajeú stream. When the Dutch surrendered in 1654 the Portuguese renamed it the Fortress of Our Lady of the Assumption, and the city takes its name from it. Fortaleza was formally founded as a town in 1726 and became the capital of Ceará in 1799.

The town grew through the 19th century, gaining the Mucuripe lighthouse in 1845, its first hospital in 1861 and a public library. Fortaleza's raft men won lasting fame in the abolition movement: from 1881 Francisco José do Nascimento, known as the Dragão do Mar, led a boycott of the ships carrying enslaved people south, and Ceará abolished slavery in 1884, four years before Brazil as a whole.

In the 20th century the port moved from Praia de Iracema to Mucuripe, the federal university was founded in 1954 and the seafront Avenida Beira Mar was laid out in 1963. Industry, fishing and later tourism drew migrants from the sertão, and the city overtook Recife in the 1980s to become the second most populous in the Northeast. It hosted matches of the 2014 World Cup at the rebuilt Castelão, and is now Brazil's fourth-largest city.

Forró is the city's music. The accordion-led dance music of the Northeast is heard in clubs, beach huts and street parties most nights of the week, and Fortaleza bands popularised electronic forró, a version closer to pop music, while the older forró pé-de-serra keeps a strong following. Singer-songwriters from the city include Fagner and Ednardo, and Belchior, born in Sobral, lived there. Cearenses are known nationally for their humour, and Fortaleza is known as Brazil's capital of humour, with comedy shows a major draw for visitors.

The jangada, a wooden sailing raft, is the symbol of Ceará, and jangadas still sail out of the cove at Mucuripe, where annual races are held. Crafts are part of daily commerce: bobbin lace, embroidery and hammocks fill the Mercado Central and the nightly fair on the Beira Mar. José de Alencar's novel Iracema gave its heroine's name to a beach, a district and several statues, and the Ceará Academy of Letters, founded in 1894, was the first of its kind in Brazil.

Football divides the city between Ceará Sporting Club and Fortaleza Esporte Clube, whose derby fills the Castelão. The Dragão do Mar centre is the hub of the arts, and the city hosts one of the Northeast's main fashion events. A local favourite story is Bode Ioiô, a goat that wandered the bohemian cafés of the centre in the 1920s, was "elected" to the city council as a protest vote, and was later displayed in the Museu do Ceará.

The 2022 census counted about 2.4 million people in the city, and almost 4 million live in the metropolitan area, which takes in Caucaia, Maracanaú and other neighbouring towns. About 60 per cent of residents describe themselves as pardo, of mixed ancestry. Fortaleza is one of Brazil's main textile and clothing centres, and services, commerce, the port at Mucuripe and tourism employ most of the rest; it is among the most visited cities in the country.

The city's wealth is concentrated near the sea. Meireles and Aldeota became the districts of the well-off from the mid 20th century, with apartment towers and shopping centres, while rapid, unplanned growth left large informal settlements on the edges and beside some beaches. Inequality and violent crime are persistent public concerns.

Life follows the heat and the sea breeze. Mornings start early; the Beira Mar fills at dawn and again at sunset with walkers, runners and families buying coconut water; the centre empties when shops close. Weekends are for the beach huts of Praia do Futuro and trips along the coast, Thursday is crab night, and forró keeps the bars busy late.

Fortaleza eats like the rest of the Ceará coast and sertão. Baião de dois, rice and beans cooked together with queijo coalho cheese, is the signature dish, usually served with grilled mutton or carne de sol, salted sun-dried beef. Crab is the seafood that defines the coast: on Thursdays the city's bars and beach huts hold the caranguejada, when whole crabs are served to be cracked open with a little wooden mallet. Lobster, shrimp and peixada cearense, fish stewed with vegetables and coconut milk, are common in seafront restaurants.

Tapioca, a crêpe of manioc starch filled with cheese, coconut or meat, and grilled coalho cheese on a stick are everyday snacks, sold from carts and kiosks along the beaches. Cashew is everywhere: the nuts are sold roasted in the markets, and the fruit, the caju, goes into juices and sweets, along with mango, cajá and other tropical fruit.

The Mucuripe fish market sells the morning's catch and has small restaurants that will cook it. For variety, the Varjota district, Praia de Iracema and the Beira Mar hold most of the city's restaurants, from regional cooking to Japanese, Italian, Arab and Portuguese kitchens. Cachaça, the cane spirit, is the local drink, often mixed into a caipirinha.