Brazil's easternmost city — white-sand beaches at the first sunrise in the Americas, tapioca crepes for breakfast, and the most compact colonial historic centre in the Northeast
João Pessoa is the capital of Paraíba and one of the most easterly cities in the Americas — close enough to the Greenwich meridian that it claims to receive the first sunrise on the continent each morning. The city is known for its compact but remarkably intact colonial historic centre (the old core of Filipeia de Nossa Senhora das Neves, one of Brazil's earliest Portuguese settlements), the urban beach culture of Tambaú and Cabo Branco, and the extraordinary northeastern food culture of the Paraíba state: tapioca crepes filled with coalho cheese and coconut, fresh caldo de cana (sugar cane j…
João Pessoa was founded in 1585 as Filipeia de Nossa Senhora das Neves — one of the earliest Portuguese colonial cities in northeastern Brazil. The city served as the capital of the Captaincy of Paraíba, established specifically to subdue the Potiguara indigenous people who had been allied with the French against Portuguese colonial expansion. The Dutch West India Company controlled the city (then renamed Frederikstad) from 1634 to 1654 during the Dutch occupation of northeastern Brazil. The city was renamed João Pessoa in 1930 in honour of the state governor who was assassinated immediately…