Situated in the south of Recife, between the neighbourhoods of Pina, Boa Viagem and the area of the Port of Recife, characterised by a continuous line of reefs parallel to the coast and very close to the beach, Brasília Teimosa (‘Stubborn Brasilia’).

According to historian Pereira da Costa, the earliest reference tothe origin of ‘Arraial’ village, the former name of the place, is from1630, when GenMatias de Albuquerque raised the Bom Jesus royal fort to protect the interior of Pernambuco from the Dutch.

The Casa Forte (Strong House) sugarcane plantation, the originof the current neighbourhood, was created in the mid-16th Century by Diogo Gonçalves, from part of the land that was given to him by the owner of the Pernambuco Captaincy, Duarte Coelho.

The neighbourhood of Caxangá originally was a settlement founded by Canon Francisco Pereira Lopes at the end of the 18th Century.

The construction date of the Chapel of Apipucos is unknown. What is known, through documents, is that it already existed, in the same place it can be found today, in 1645, under the invocation of Our Lady Mother of God, and then of Our Lady of Sorrows.