It is the second-oldest city of the country and is situated on the north coast of the metropolitan region of Recife, approximately 32 kilometres (20 mi).

Shortly after Coelho's arrival he ordered a rock landmark erected to mark the border between Pernambuco and Itamaracá; this still stands today.

[6] Igarassu was the site of the brief liberal republican Praieira revolt in 1848, in which the troops of Colonel Manuel Pereira de Morais were installed in the Convent of Saint Antônio.

One of the military officers who put down the revolt was Deodoro da Fonseca, later briefly the first president of the Brazilian republic.

A sandbar islet in the middle of the Jaguaribe River delta, which can only be reached by boat or raft from Itamaracá or Gavoa beach.