Brazil's safest capital — mangrove delta beaches and forró every weekend
Aracaju is the capital of Sergipe — Brazil's smallest state — and has a reputation as one of the safest and most livable of Brazil's state capitals. Planned on a grid from scratch in 1855 (one of the few deliberately designed cities in Brazil), it sits at the mouth of the Sergipe River where it meets the Atlantic, surrounded by mangrove estuaries, sand dunes, and some of the most beautiful and least-crowded beaches on the northeastern coast. Praia de Atalaia is the city beach; the outlying beaches at Santa Luzia do Itanhy and Abaís are vast, empty, and accessible by local bus. The Mercado Mun…
The Sergipe territory was the site of early Portuguese-Brazilian conflict — the indigenous Tupinambá and Kiriri peoples of the region resisted Portuguese colonization fiercely, and the first attempts at settlement in the 1570s failed. The Jesuits and military finally established Portuguese control in the early 17th century, and sugarcane cultivation transformed the territory using enslaved African labour. Aracaju was founded in 1855 when the provincial capital was moved from the old colonial city of São Cristóvão to the river mouth, planned on a rational grid by engineer Sebastião José Basíli…