Interpretive planning in a historic urban context: the case of Porto Seguro, Brazil

In 2000, Brazil, as a nation, celebrated their ‘discovery’ by the Portuguese. Such an event was surrounded by contradictions and cultural meanings which impacted, briefly, on one of several ‘discovery’ sites, the town of Porto Seguro in Bahia. This paper focuses on the use of heritage interpretation techniques and community consultation to develop an interpretive programme as part of the town's upgrading for 2000. It examines some of the key influences on the eventual improvements and endorses the importance of a shared design process for the presentation of historic areas. The methods developed are currently being applied in a central area of the city of Recife, the intended subject of a second paper reflecting on the further development of interpretive planning in the Brazilian urban context.