Culture & History

Rio Grande do Norte was born in 1598 at the mouth of the Potengi river, when Portuguese settlers built the Reis Magos Fort to keep the French off the coast. Over 425 years later the star-shaped fort still stands — and it is only the entry point into a heritage network that includes baroque churches, old sugar cane farms, merchant houses in Macau and Afro-Brazilian cultural courtyards on the west side of Natal.

Living culture is just as strong as the built heritage. Pé-de-serra forró — accordion, bass drum and triangle — still packs traditional houses in downtown Natal on Wednesday through Saturday nights. June festivals, around the feast of São João, turn small towns like Mossoró and Currais Novos into open-air quadrilha stages for three weeks. And artisans in Caicó and the Seridó hinterland still produce bobbin lace, ceramics and cordel — popular literature printed on small folded booklets hung from a string.