🏙️ Caramuru Building

The Caramuru Building is an office building in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It was designed by the architect Paulo Antunes Ribeiro (1905–1973) for Prudência Capitalização, an insurance company. Construction began on the structure in 1946 and it opened in 1951. The Caramuru Building was one of the first Modernist buildings constructed in the Northeast Region of Brazil, closely following the construction of Hotel de Bahia. It was widely recognized by the domestic and international architectural press; it was described as having a "graceful, almost abstract elegance [...] contrasted with the robust architecture of Bahia." The structure fell into disrepair but remains in the Comércio district. It is a protected structure by the state of Bahia and has provisional protected status by the by National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).