Founded on 1612, the capital of Maranhao, has been considered Patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO. It is a city surrounded of beaches like the one by Calhau, Ponta D'Areia and São Marcos, where they are the ruins of the Forte de São Marcos, of century XVIII.
The city lived its apogee in second half on century XVIII, when the cotton exports went tailwind. Then, the then province of Maranhão provided great part of the tributes to the Real Treasure, surpassing to other provinces that integrated the Portuguese Empire.
São Luis got to be, in that period, the colonial State Capital of Maranhão, related directly to the Portuguese court. From his apogee to the economic decay there were many events that can be known in detail in districts like the one Great Praia, an historical center declared National Historical Patrimony. In an extension of 107 km ² is the main tourist attractions of the city, with constructions of centuries XVII to XIX.
The capital preserves more than three thousand protected buildings, the majority with facades where they emphasize tiles, inheritance of the Portuguese colonization. Among them is Palace two Leões, where the fort worked until 1615 that protected the then capital of Equinoccial France, like was denominated São Luis during the French dominion; the Cathedral gives I know, constructed by the Jesuits in 1726; the church Do Carmo, one of oldest of the city, built in 1627; and the Theater Arthur Azevedo, constructed between 1815 and 1817, considered like the first theater installed in one capital Brazilian.
The city of São Luis was the cradle of some important names of Literature, like Gonçalves poet Day (1823-1864), the writer Graça Aranha (1868-1931), charter member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and one of the members of the Modernist Movement of 1922; novelist Aluísio de Azevedo (1857-1913) and its brother, the dramatist Arthur de Azevedo (1855-1908).
The vast literary heap of local writers, as well as of other regions of the country, is preserved in the House of Culture Joshua Montello.