Casa Marback, Historic mansion in Bonfim district, Salvador, Brazil

Casa Marback is a two-story urban sobrado with a mirante, about 1,700 square metres of built area and nineteen rooms. It has two glazed side galleries and a double front staircase leading to the noble floor.

Luiz da Penha França sold the house to colonel Francisco Pereira Sodré, Barão de Alagoinhas, in 1828, though the land was leased. Sodré's heir Francisco Maria Sodré Pereira never completed payment or the lease, and the property went to auction. Henrique Samuel Marback, an English-born partner in the coastal shipping firm Marback, Gantois & Cia, began negotiations and his son Samuel Augusto Marback concluded them; the ruined house was restored between 1855 and 1858.

The house takes its name from the Marback family, English in origin, who owned it for over a century. Samuel Augusto Marback, who ran Salvador's first bar soap factory, married Carolina Amália de Lassance, sister of general Guilherme Carlos de Lassance e Cunha, which is how the name Guilherme entered the family. Look for the double front staircase and the two glazed side galleries.

Casa Marback stands in Salvador's Bonfim area, a short walk from the Basílica do Senhor do Bonfim. Access to the upper floor is by the double front staircase, and the two glazed side galleries connect the rooms; the mirante is reached by further steps. The house is a protected heritage site, so visits depend on authorised openings.

After inheriting the property, Samuel Augusto Marback established Salvador's first bar soap factory within its walls. The workspace reveals how the family transformed their residence into a center of local manufacturing.