Pernambuco

Pernambuco is a state on the northeastern coast of Brazil with a powerful cultural and historical legacy. Its capital is Recife, often called the Venice of Brazil for its rivers and bridges, alongside the beautiful colonial city of Olinda. It is the birthplace of frevo and maracatu and home to the paradise islands of Fernando de Noronha.

Pernambuco stretches from an Atlantic coast of reefs and beaches across a fertile zone to the semi-arid sertao interior. Far offshore lies the volcanic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. The climate is tropical on the coast and dry inland.

Pernambuco is a cultural powerhouse of the northeast, the birthplace of frevo and maracatu music and dance, with one of Brazil's most famous Carnivals in Recife and Olinda. Its crafts, cuisine and music are nationally influential.

A center of the colonial sugar economy and the site of a 17th-century Dutch colony based in Recife, Pernambuco was also a cradle of republican and independence movements. Olinda preserves a wealth of colonial architecture.