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Feira de Santana is the second-largest city of Bahia in northeastern Brazil, a busy crossroads about 108 kilometres from Salvador famous for the cattle fairs that gave it its name and for the Micareta, its out-of-season carnival. The town grew from an 18th-century ranch whose owners, Domingos Barbosa de Araújo and Ana Brandão, gave land in 1732 for a chapel to Saint Anne.
Cowboys driving herds from the sertão to the coast stopped here, and the fair of Sant'Ana became the great market of the Bahian interior. That trading past shows in the historic centre, with the cathedral, the 1915 municipal market now selling folk art, the eclectic town hall and the cast-iron bandstands of its old squares. The independence heroine Maria Quitéria was born in the district, and the town hall bears her name.
Today Feira is a university city as well as a commercial hub. The State University of Feira de Santana runs the Museu Casa do Sertão and the Antares observatory, and every year the Micareta fills the streets with trios elétricos and some of Bahia's best-known axé bands.
The Catedral Metropolitana de Sant'Ana is the cathedral of Feira de Santana and grew from the chapel to Saint Anne built on the founders' land in 1732. Its baroque-style facade has three arched doors between two towers with pyramid tops, and Emperor Pedro II visited the church in 1859.
The Igreja Senhor dos Passos is a listed church on Avenida Senhor dos Passos in central Feira de Santana. Its first mass was held in 1929, but building went on for about 53 years. Restored and reopened in 2012, it became the first archdiocesan sanctuary of the metropolitan region in 2024.
The Paço Municipal of Feira de Santana, named after the independence heroine Maria Quitéria, is the town hall on Avenida Getúlio Vargas. Begun in 1921 and opened in 1926, the eclectic building has rounded corners, classical columns and a grand hall with an S-shaped wooden staircase.
The Filarmônica 25 de Março is a musical society founded in Feira de Santana on 25 March 1868 and considered the oldest active band society in Bahia. Based on Rua Conselheiro Franco in the city centre, its band plays at religious processions and public events and runs a music school.
The Coreto da Praça da Matriz is a listed bandstand on the cathedral square of Feira de Santana, built with cast-iron parts imported from Europe. The square around it has concentric paths, shady lawns, benches and old-style lamps, making it a pleasant place to rest in the historic centre.
The Coreto da Praça Bernardino Bahia was built in 1915 by the town's intendant, Colonel Bernardino Bahia, and is the first bandstand of Feira de Santana. Listed by the Bahia heritage institute IPAC in 2002, it still stands at the centre of its square, framed by trees and old street lamps.
The Painel do Artista Lênio Braga is a large mural created in 1967 by the painter Lênio Braga for the bus terminal of Feira de Santana. In a style inspired by cordel folk literature, it shows saints, priests, children, animals and pots in a tribute to Bahia, and it was restored in 2019.
The Mercado de Arte Popular occupies the Mercado Municipal of Feira de Santana, opened in 1915 to bring order to the town's meat trade. Since 1980 the historic building has been a folk-art market where stalls sell leatherwork, ceramics, hammocks, baskets and other crafts of the Bahian sertão.
The Micareta de Feira de Santana is an out-of-season carnival held over four days about two weeks after Easter, and the first of its kind in Brazil, begun in 1937. Trios elétricos and axé bands parade along the Circuito Maneca Ferreira on Avenida Presidente Dutra, drawing huge crowds.
The Museu Casa do Sertão is a museum on the campus of the State University of Feira de Santana, opened on 30 June 1978. Built by the local Lions Club and later given to the university, it preserves documents, objects and memories of the history and culture of the sertão around Feira de Santana.
The Observatório Astronômico Antares in Feira de Santana was founded in 1971 by Augusto César Pereira Orrico and joined the State University of Feira de Santana in 1992. It includes an astronomy library and the Museu Antares de Ciência e Tecnologia, opened in 2009, with hands-on exhibits.
The Centro Universitário de Cultura e Arte, known as CUCA, is the cultural centre of the State University of Feira de Santana, founded in 1995. It hosts music, dance, theatre and art exhibitions, supports folk traditions of the region and organised a 2005 folklore parade watched by 70,000 people.
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