Aracaju

Aracaju is the capital city of the Sergipe State in Brazil. It is located in the northeastern part of the country, about 350km north of Salvador. It has a population around 470,000 inhabitants, which represents approximately 33% of the state population. Sugar cane and petroleum extraction are its main economic activities.

History

Although the Portuguese founded a colony here in 1592, the capital of the infant state of Sergipe was moved to nearby São Cristóvão. Then, in the mid-nineteenth century, there was a sudden vogue for purpose-built administrative centres (similar to the urge that led to the construction of Brasilia a century later), and the core of modern Aracaju was thrown up overnight, becoming the state capital again in 1855. Like the other Brazilian state capitals planned and built in the nineteenth century, Aracaju is - to put it mildly - something of an architectural desert, built on an American-style grid layout. Oil wealth has stimulated a lot of recent building and given the city council enough money to keep everything clean and tidy. The people are friendly, some of the beaches are good and the small colonial towns of Laranjeiras and São Cristóvão are only a short bus ride away (Adapted from The Rough Guide to Brazil (2000), UK).

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Aracaju skyline from the Sergipe River, Brazil.

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