A Cidade Mais Linda do Brasil Está Morrendo — Terra Quase de Graça

The most beautiful city in Brazil boasts 18th-century Baroque churches, a breathtaking bay, and land for under fifty thousand reais—and almost nobody knows about it. Alcântara, in Maranhão, was the state's first capital, the richest place in the colonial North, with eighteen churches for two thousand inhabitants. What happened afterward is one of the most unjust and ignored stories in the country: three hundred and twelve quilombola families expelled to make way for a rocket launch base, an agreement with the US in the middle, and crumbling Baroque ruins with no money to save them. The land is practically free—but the reason will surprise you. Would you live in Alcântara? Tell us in the comments.