Located in Largo do Amparo, in Olinda, the Church of Our Lady of Amparo was built in 1613 by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Amparo of the Black Men. Curiously, its members wore a black habit with a white hood.

According to chroniclers, Duarte Coelho, the first Grantee of Pernambuco, had a small temple dedicated to Our Lady of the Mount erected in wood and clay on the grounds of Olinda Hill.

Built in Olinda on a flat slope on a high hill, the Church of St Francis dates from the 18th century, at a time in which its (annexed) convent was rebuilt.

Vital Maria Gonçalves de Oliveira, Brazilian Capuchin bishop, was born on 27 November 1844 atthe Aurora sugarcane plantation, Pedras de Fogo, in the parish of Itambé, Pernambuco, on the Paraiba border.

José Eudes Chagas, known as the King of Maracatu, was born in the city of Olinda, Pernambuco, in 1921. He moved to Recife when he was still a child, and he went to live in the beginning of Água Fria neighborhood and afterwards in the neighborhood of Pina.