Recife

Recife began as a cluster of fishing shacks, inns and warehouses on the delta of the Capibaribe and Beberibe rivers, behind the reef that gave it its name. Its first documented mention, as the "reef of the ships", is in the charter of 12 March 1537 that made Olinda, a few kilometres north, a town; Recife was Olinda's port. Duarte Coelho's captaincy of Pernambuco became the richest sugar region in Portuguese America, and in 1541 the first sugar mill was set up on the Beberibe floodplain.

In 1630 the Dutch West India Company invaded Pernambuco, partly burned Olinda and made Recife its seat, later building a new town on a neighbouring island, Mauritsstad, named after Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, governor from 1637 to 1644, who brought painters such as Frans Post and built bridges and public buildings. Sephardic Jews who had taken refuge in Dutch Brazil founded Kahal Zur Israel, the first synagogue in the Americas, in 1636. After the two battles of Guararapes, Portuguese and Brazilian forces retook Recife in 1654, and many of its Jews left, some of them going on to New Amsterdam, later New York.

Recife outgrew Olinda, and the Mascate War of 1710–1711 set its merchants against those of Olinda. In the 19th century the city was a centre of republican revolt, and its port, sugar and later industry made it the commercial hub of the Northeast. In recent decades the old island quarter has been restored, and since 2000 the Porto Digital technology district has filled its warehouses with software companies.

Recife is the home of frevo, a fast brass-band music and acrobatic dance with small coloured umbrellas, whose name is said to come from ferver, "to boil"; UNESCO recognised it as intangible cultural heritage in 2012. Maracatu, with its royal courts and heavy drums, is the other great Carnival tradition, and in the 1990s the mangue beat movement mixed maracatu, ciranda and rap with rock. Carnival, shared with Olinda, opens with the Galo da Madrugada, founded in 1978, which draws more than two million people through the São José district on Carnival Saturday; the Night of the Silent Drums on the Pátio do Terço honours enslaved Africans who died in prison.

The city's art is shaped by Francisco Brennand, whose ceramic workshop and sculpture park are among its landmarks, and by the collection of the Ricardo Brennand Institute. Recife and Olinda between them have dozens of museums and galleries, theatres including the 1850 Teatro de Santa Isabel, and a long literary tradition; the sociologist Gilberto Freyre, born here, gave his name to the airport.

Football is followed with passion, split between three clubs — Sport, Náutico and Santa Cruz — since the game arrived with English and Dutch sailors in 1902. Recifenses are known for their pride in local culture and their distinct accent.

The 2022 census counted about 1.49 million people in the city of Recife and about 3.7 million in its metropolitan area, the largest in the Northeast. Boa Viagem, in the prosperous south, was the most populous neighbourhood in 2008, a district of high-rise flats along the beach.

The city has long been the commercial hub of the North and Northeast, with tens of thousands of businesses, one of the largest medical centres in Brazil, the Federal University of Pernambuco and the Porto Digital technology cluster. The wider metropolitan area adds the Suape port and industrial complex, sugar and ethanol, vehicles, ships and oil platforms.

Inequality is stark, and gun violence remains a serious problem despite the city's relatively high development index among northeastern capitals. Daily life follows the heat: the beach is busiest at weekends, buses and the metro carry most commuters, and evenings bring caldinho, beer and live music to the bars.

Recife's cooking draws on the sugar coast and the sertão behind it. Ingredients rarely seen in southern Brazil are everyday here: manioc flour, cuscuz, a steamed maize-flour cake eaten at breakfast, pumpkin, carne de sol, salted sun-dried beef, and goat and lamb. Tapioca, a crêpe of cassava starch filled with cheese or coconut, is sold on street corners, and queijo coalho, a firm squeaky cheese, is grilled and sold on the beach.

Caldinho, a small cup of thick bean or seafood soup, is served in bars and sold on Boa Viagem beach by vendors carrying flasks. The coast supplies fish and seafood, cooked in coconut milk or served fried, and many of the city's seafood restaurants are in Boa Viagem.

Pernambuco's sweet tooth comes from its sugar history. Bolo de rolo, a paper-thin sponge rolled around guava paste in many layers, and bolo Souza Leão, a dense cake of cassava and coconut, were both born here, and cartola is fried banana topped with melted cheese, sugar and cinnamon. Fruit juices from cajá, graviola and other tropical fruits, cold beer and cachaça complete the table.