Belém: the gateway to the Amazon

Founded in 1616 at the mouth of the Amazon River, Belém remains the main river access point to the rainforest, with a historic market that has sorted Amazonian regional products for centuries.

The historic center and port can be explored on foot with ease.

The Ver-o-Peso, an open-air market along the river active since the colonial period, remains among the largest open-air markets in Latin America, with stalls of Amazonian fish, medicinal herbs and local amulets.

The Mangal das Garças, an ecological park on the riverfront, houses aviaries inhabited by scarlet ibises and other Amazonian bird species in a reconstructed mangrove environment.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth houses the sacred image at the center of the Círio de Nazaré, a religious procession that every October gathers over one million faithful in the city's streets.

The Fort of the Nativity, a Portuguese fortification from the seventeenth century at the origin of the city settlement, today houses a small museum of Amazonian archaeology overlooking the Guajará Bay.

Ver-o-Peso continues to sell the same forest products that crossed this port four centuries ago, changing perhaps only the way today's buyers arrive.

Círio de Nazaré, capable of gathering more than a million people in a few streets, shows instead how much Belém remains, despite everything, a deeply devout city.