All Saints Bay

All Saints Bay opens from the Atlantic behind the coast of Bahia, sheltering the waters in front of Salvador and giving the state its name. Its shallow basin is studded with islands, and Itaparica, the largest, guards the entrance. The Paraguaçu River enters through the Recôncavo lowlands, carrying inland water into the bay.

Amerigo Vespucci entered the bay on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1501, during his second expedition to the Americas, and named it after the date and the Florentine church of Ognissanti. By the early eighteenth century Salvador had become a major port serving the sugar plantations of the Recôncavo, and the old fort at Barra controlled the approaches. The bay's anchorage tied the plantations to the Portuguese Atlantic world.