João Pessoa: walking tour

This open civic square has gone by several names over the centuries, but the one written on the signs today belongs to a single politician and the crisis his death set off. In July 1930, the governor of Paraíba, João Pessoa, was shot dead in a bakery in Recife. Within weeks, his political allies turned his assassination into a national rallying cry, igniting the revolution that swept Getúlio Vargas into power and remade the Brazilian republic.

His home state responded by naming practically everything in sight after him, including this square, the state flag, and the entire city itself. Before that summer, people simply called the capital Parahyba.

Locals often call this space the Praça dos Três Poderes, because it gathers the state's executive, legislative, and judicial branches into one tight perimeter. The long white façade of the Palácio da Redenção holds the executive seat. It started out in 1586 as a modest Jesuit college and church. Over the centuries, Portuguese governors moved in, religious space gave way to administrative halls, and today it functions both as the seat of government and as the State History Museum, holding João Pessoa's tomb.

I find the contrast between the quiet geometry of these buildings and their backstory remarkable. What looks like an orderly civic plaza is actually the staging ground of a political earthquake.