Madre de Deus is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
Bahia
Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...
in the
North-East region of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The municipality is located on a small
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...
in the
Bay of All Saints
The Bay of All Saints ( pt, Baía de Todos os Santos), also known as All Saints' Bay and Todos os Santos Bay, is the principal bay of the Brazilian state of Bahia, to which it gave its name. It sits on the eastern coast of Brazil, surrounding p ...
; it both the smallest municipality by land mass in Bahia and the Northeastern region of Brazil. Madre de Deus is spread across two islands, the Ilha de Madre de Deus and the much smaller Ilha de Maria Guarda. It sits in close proximity to two others islands, the Ilha do Bom Jesus dos Passos and Ilha dos Frades, both part of the city of Salvador. The Ilha de Madre de Deus is further subdivided into the neighborhoods of Centro, Suape, Cação, Marezinha, Mirim, Alto do Paraíso, Apicum, Nova Madre de Deus e Quitéria, Alto da Matriz, Alto do Santo Antônio, Alto da Boa Vista, Cururupeba, Malvinas, and Nova Brasília.
Carnival in Madre de Deus is noted for costumes called ''caretas''.
History
Madre de Deus was originally settled by
Tupinambá people
The Tupinambá are one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabited present-day Brazil since before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. In the first years of contact with the Portuguese, the Tupinambás lived in the wh ...
. The Portuguese established a settlement called Madre de Deus do Boqueirão on the island in 1696; the name was shortened to Madre de Deus in 1938. It remained part of the city of Salvador until 1990. Its economy centers on the Petrobras maritime terminal;
artisanal fishing
Artisanal fishing (or traditional/subsistence fishing) consists of various small-scale, low-technology, low-capital, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishing households (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households are ...
and tourism are secondary industries. Madre de Deus has suffered ecological degradation due to the petroleum industry. Major oil spills occurred in the municipality in 1992 and 1999.
Access
Madre de Deus is connected to the mainland via the municipalities of
Candeias and
São Francisco do Conde
São Francisco do Conde is a municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. São Francisco do Conde covers , and has a population of 40,245 with a population density of 150 inhabitants per square kilometer. It is located f ...
. The municipality is located only from the mainland, and can be crossed by foot at low tide. A bridge was connected to Madre de Deus in 1950 with the establishment of the
Petrobras TEMADRE maritime terminal.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Bahia
This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Bahia (BA), located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Bahia is divided into 417 municipalities, which are grouped into 32 microregions, which are grouped into 7 mesoregions.
See also
...
References
Populated coastal places in Bahia
Archipelagoes of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic islands of Brazil
Municipalities in Bahia
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