Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado, Literary museum in Pelourinho district, Salvador, Brazil

The Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado occupies three adjoining colonial townhouses at numbers 47, 49 and 51 on Largo do Pelourinho, facing the square. Its facade is painted blue, and the permanent exhibition is laid out over four floors: the writer's archive, a research centre and a museum of his personal objects and the covers of editions of his books from many countries. A ground-floor mural lists the more than 60 languages into which Amado was translated.

In 1982, Jorge Amado turned 70 and marked 50 years of writing; foreign and Brazilian institutions pressed him to donate his archive, but Zélia Gattai insisted it stay in Bahia. Myriam Fraga revived the plan, UFBA librarians catalogued the papers kept at his Rio Vermelho house, and the state government and BANEB donated two listed townhouses at numbers 47, 49 and 51. The foundation was created in 1986 and inaugurated on 7 March 1987.

Jorge Amado chose Exu, the candomblé orixá of crossroads, as the foundation's guardian; the iron sculpture at the entrance is by Tati Moreno and was donated by the writer James Amado. At the 1987 opening, the abbot of Mosteiro de São Bento blessed the building and babalorixá Luís da Muriçoca purified it with incense and sacred leaves, followed by a padê ceremony with Bahian candomblé houses.

The foundation occupies three adjoining townhouses at numbers 47, 49 and 51 on the Largo do Pelourinho, spread over four floors, so allow time to climb between levels. The Museu da Cidade is next door. Jorge Amado's own former home, at no. 68 Rua Alfredo Brito, stands a few metres away.

The archive holds editions of books in dozens of languages, a rare sign of how widely one Brazilian author's work was read across the globe. This collection shows how Brazilian voices were heard in many different cultures.