Recife, Natal & the Northeast Coast

Before the Portuguese, the coast was held by Tupi-speaking peoples such as the Potiguara in the north and the Caeté further south, with Tapuia groups in the dry interior. In 1534 Pernambuco became one of the first captaincies, granted to Duarte Coelho, who founded Olinda around 1535. Sugar mills worked by enslaved Africans soon made it the richest corner of Portuguese America, and the port of Recife grew below the hill town.

In 1630 the Dutch West India Company seized Olinda and Recife, and burned Olinda the following year. Under Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, governor from 1637 to 1644, Recife was rebuilt as Mauritsstad, with bridges, a palace and a Jewish community whose Kahal Zur Israel is regarded as the first synagogue in the Americas. Luso-Brazilian forces defeated the Dutch at the two battles of Guararapes in 1648 and 1649, and the last garrison surrendered in 1654. In the hills of Alagoas, meanwhile, the runaway settlement of Palmares held out for most of the 17th century until its leader Zumbi was killed in 1695.

Natal grew around the Forte dos Reis Magos after 1599, and João Pessoa, founded in 1585 and renamed Filipeia in 1588, took its present name in 1930. Pernambuco was a centre of revolt: against Portugal in 1817 and against the new empire in the Confederation of the Equator of 1824. During the Second World War United States forces shared a large air base at Parnamirim, outside Natal, as a staging post for flights to Africa. Fernando de Noronha, long a prison island, became part of Pernambuco in 1988.

The northeast coast is where Brazil's African, Portuguese and Indigenous roots mixed earliest, and its culture is proudly regional. Recife and Olinda share one of the country's great carnivals, danced to frevo, a fast brass-band music with acrobatic steps and small umbrellas that is recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage. Maracatu groups parade with royal courts and heavy drums, Olinda's streets fill with giant papier-mâché puppets, and Recife's Galo da Madrugada bloco draws enormous crowds on Carnival Saturday.

June belongs to São João, the feast of forró, bonfires and maize dishes, with Caruaru in Pernambuco and Campina Grande in Paraíba each claiming the biggest celebration. Around Easter, a passion play is staged in the open-air city of Nova Jerusalém in the Pernambuco agreste. In the 1990s Recife's mangue beat movement, led by Chico Science, fused maracatu with rock and hip-hop, and the writer Ariano Suassuna, born in Paraíba, championed an Armorial art rooted in popular traditions.

Crafts are strong: the clay figurines of Mestre Vitalino's followers at Alto do Moura in Caruaru, cordel pamphlets of verse illustrated with woodcuts, bobbin lace, and Francisco Brennand's monumental ceramics in Recife. The accent is distinct, with open vowels and its own slang, and Catholic devotion sits alongside Candomblé and Xangô terreiros and a fast-growing evangelical presence.

About 22 million people live in the five states. Greater Recife, with roughly four million, is the region's metropolis; Maceió, Natal, João Pessoa and Aracaju each have between about half a million and a million people, and Caruaru and Campina Grande are the main inland centres. Most people live on or near the coast, while the dry sertão behind it has long sent migrants south to São Paulo.

Sugar cane still covers much of the humid coastal strip, but the economy has diversified: the Suape port and industrial complex south of Recife, the Porto Digital technology district in Recife Antigo, wind farms across Rio Grande do Norte, salt pans around Mossoró, shrimp farming, and tourism, which drives employment from Porto de Galinhas to Pipa. Inequality is sharp, and many households depend on public transfers and informal work.

Days start early to beat the heat, beaches are busiest at weekends, and evenings bring street food, bars and live forró. In Maceió, ground subsidence linked to rock-salt mining by the petrochemical company Braskem has forced the evacuation of several neighbourhoods since 2019, a continuing dispute over compensation. Rising seas and coastal erosion are another concern along urban beachfronts.

Northeastern coastal cooking rests on manioc, coconut, seafood and the dried meat of the sertão. Carne de sol, salted and briefly sun-dried beef, is served with macaxeira (boiled or fried cassava) and manteiga de garrafa, a clarified "bottle butter". Cuscuz here is a steamed maize-flour cake eaten at breakfast, and tapioca, a crêpe of cassava starch filled with cheese or coconut, is sold on street corners. Queijo coalho, a firm squeaky cheese, is grilled on skewers on every beach.

The coast adds moquecas and fish stews with coconut milk, crab boiled and cracked with a wooden mallet in Aracaju's seafront Passarela do Caranguejo, sururu (small shellfish from the Alagoas lagoons) cooked in broth, and caldinhos, small cups of bean or seafood soup served in bars. Inland, buchada de bode is a stuffed goat's stomach and sarapatel a spiced stew of pork offal and blood.

Pernambuco is known for its cakes: bolo de rolo, a paper-thin sponge rolled around guava paste in many layers, and the dense bolo Souza Leão made with cassava and coconut. Cartola is a dessert of fried banana topped with melted cheese, sugar and cinnamon. Tropical fruit — cajá, mangaba, graviola, caju — goes into juices and ice creams, and cachaça, including aged bottles from Paraíba stills, is the local spirit.

In Pernambuco, Recife's old town on its island has the Rua do Bom Jesus and the Kahal Zur Israel synagogue, while the Instituto Ricardo Brennand holds a mock-castle museum of arms and Dutch-era art, and Boa Viagem is the long city beach. Olinda, next door, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Baroque churches, the Alto da Sé viewpoint and steep lanes of painted houses. South of Recife, Porto de Galinhas has reef pools at low tide, and Praia dos Carneiros at Tamandaré is known for its palm-fringed estuary chapel. Fernando de Noronha, a marine national park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers Baía do Sancho, Morro Dois Irmãos, spinner dolphins and some of Brazil's best diving.

In Alagoas, Maceió's reefs form the natural pools of Pajuçara, beside the Ponta Verde beaches; further north lie the reefs of Maragogi and São Miguel dos Milagres, and to the south the colonial river town of Penedo on the São Francisco. The Serra da Barriga, site of Palmares, has a memorial park. Sergipe's Aracaju has a long seafront, São Cristóvão's São Francisco Square is UNESCO-listed, and boat trips run through the Xingó canyon on the São Francisco.

In Paraíba, João Pessoa has the Baroque church and convent of São Francisco, the Ponta do Seixas lighthouse area and offshore sandbanks at low tide. In Rio Grande do Norte, Natal's dunes run from the buggy trails of Genipabu to Morro do Careca above Ponta Negra, beside the Forte dos Reis Magos; to the south lie the vast Cajueiro de Pirangi cashew tree and the cliffs and dolphin bays of Pipa.