Transformaciones, conflictos e identidades en el Centro Histórico de Salvador de Bahia

Abstract

Shortly after its designation as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985, the historic centre of Salvador de Bahia, and more specifically Pelourinho, started to undergo significant changes which were oriented to the consolidation of this Brazilian city as an important tourist destination in South America. The outcome of the regeneration policies that have been implemented to this end has elicited conflicting reactions among the stakeholders in the process and the results have become points of reference for other cities which have identified the potential for tourism in their central historic areas, as in Salvador. This paper analyses the various urban renewal policies that local and regional authorities have implemented in the historic centre of Salvador since the late nineteenth century. In doing so we wish to highlight the successive ‘reinventions’ and transformations of the area, which in general have responded to the interests of the power groups that initiated them. In addition, the paper focuses on some of the conflicts which arose during the process, as well as the challenges that remain in order to turn Pelourinho into a lively, multifunctional space.