Recife & Olinda: Dutch History, Brennand Museums & Coral Reefs

Documented in the 12 March 1537 charter of Olinda as the harbour of Pernambuco's thriving sixteenth-century sugar captaincy, Recife grew across an estuary of three coastal islands (Ilha do Recife, Ilha de Santo Antônio, and Boa Vista) where the Capibaribe and Beberibe Rivers meet the South Atlantic. Captured by the Dutch West India Company in 1630, the port became Mauritsstad (1630 to 1654) under humanist governor Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, leaving a legacy of bridges, canals, and the oldest synagogue in the Americas. Paired with its hilltop sister city of Olinda just six kilometres north, Greater Recife offers one of Brazil's richest combinations of colonial architecture, world-class art estates, and coral-reef beaches.

How Greater Recife Is Organised

• Ilha do Recife (Recife Antigo) & Ilha de Santo Antônio: The historic twin-island core, home to Praça Rio Branco (Marco Zero), Rua do Bom Jesus, and the 1636 Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue on the eastern port island, and the gilded Capela Dourada (1696) and Casa da Cultura across the bridge on Santo Antônio.
• Zona Sul (Boa Viagem & Pina): Stretching eight kilometres south along the Atlantic, Praia de Boa Viagem is protected by a natural wall of calcified sandstone reefs (arrecifes) that form warm shallow tide pools at low water.
• Zona Oeste (Várzea): Fourteen kilometres west in a preserved pocket of Atlantic Forest sit the two remarkable family art complexes: Instituto Ricardo Brennand and Oficina Cerâmica Francisco Brennand.
• Olinda (6 km North): Crowned by sixteen-century convents and colourful hillside streets overlooking the ocean, Historic Olinda has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.

Coastal Day Trips North and South

Within sixty to ninety minutes of Recife, the southern Costa dos Corais leads to the natural coral pools of Porto de Galinhas and the coconut-framed Chapel of São Benedito at Praia dos Carneiros, while the northern road reaches 1535 Igarassu and the Dutch star fort of Forte Orange on Ilha de Itamaracá.