The Coast
This text was originally written by the coordinator of the respective volume for the print edition as an introduction to the geographic area in question; the possibility of updating it was left to each author’s discretion. It should be interpreted together with the general introductory text from the respective volume.
THE COAST was the first territory to be colonised in Brazil. What was seen from the sea was naturally the Atlantic coast of South America and, for some time, the navigators' sole concern was to begin their discovery of the continent. Still remaining as material evidence of their presence here, but, above all, of their interpretation and mental appropriation of the region, are a few stone landmarks similar to those that were used in Africa, which are now to be found in museums (there is one at the Museum of the Fort of the Magi, in Natal (rn)). The first constructions were possibly factories, but nothing now remains that could help us to know exactly what these looked like. This will have to be the task of archaeologists. The occupation of the territory began with the foundation of towns and the settlement there of the colonisers. And these two events were inseparably linked. This is an important aspect because the north-eastern region of Brazil is historically characterised by its rural occupation, mainly centred upon the creation of sugarcane plantations and mills but also involving livestock farming.
The captaincy of Pernambuco, founded by Duarte Coelho in 1535 under the meaningful name of Nova Lusitânia ("New Lusitania”), was the first centre of population to be created on the north-eastern coast. Olinda (pe), the capital founded by this donatory, is one of the few urban centres for which there exists a founding document, generally known as the foral (charter) of Olinda. More specifically, as Mota Menezes says, it is a textual document describing the way in which land was to be distributed, naturally implying the growth of the town that was founded at that time.
It can be said that each urban centre founded in Brazil was always an ongoing project. Such places remained open, above all, to their growth as centres of population, establishing their own expansion areas for this purpose. But, in addition to this, the method by which they were built could itself be described as a profoundly procedural form of urbanism, since it was essentially based on a sensible and intelligent management of their respective pace of development. The paradigmatic expression for describing this method is the Portuguese word arruamento, which means nothing more than the gradual creation of streets, controlled and supervised either by officials from the city council or by military engineers, depending on the case.
Also included in the concept and practice of arruamento is the idea of managing these areas both in a geometrical and legislative sense, a procedure that was to continue for quite some time in the course of the urban creation of colonial Brazil.
But these cities also remained open in terms of their actual place in the territorial structure, for which the binomial of city/rural area was a fundamental consideration. As in the metropolis, each urban centre had a corresponding area of territorial jurisdiction, the termo of the town, which was generally established when the centre itself was founded (even though it was impossible to mark out its boundaries at the same time). This termo was subdivided into two parts: the rossio, the area allotted for its potential expansion close to the centre itself, and the termo in its strict sense, which was the whole of the rural area under the jurisdiction of the urban centre. The same pattern was used in the formation of cities in Portugal, but, in the case of Brazil, both areas were implicitly assigned to be areas of potential growth. The rossio was particularly important, as it was the land set aside for the growth of the city and administered by the city council, which had the right to rent (aforar) the lands in this area. The rossio therefore virtually contained the city in itself, as this was the area into which it was meant to grow. The termo, in turn, included the rural area - which was also growing - thus ensuring the occupation of the hinterland which, once occupied, was no longer a wilderness area. In other words, this occupation pushed the hinterland back and, in turn, each new town, with its termo, successively built a continuously growing territory. This symbiotic and procedural relationship is important for understanding that the undeniably rural basis of colonisation was, above all, a basis for territorial expansion, and that the urban centres - which were the political centres of this territory - played a paramount role in its structure and construction.
Since it was the east-north eastern coast was where this process began, if we consider just the constructed heritage, this situation becomes even more evident. What we note, right from the start, is a parallel construction of urban and rural buildings. Both of these constructions took place simultaneously, reciprocally consolidating the occupation of the territory. Yet they both also shared an inevitable procedural character, which was materialised in the form of an architecture that was continuously undergoing reconstruction. Hence, it is not at all easy to classify buildings from a chronological point of view. Although many buildings might initially have been built in the 16th or 17th century, what we can see today is probably the result of successive alterations made at distinct times, or the result of the last and most sumptuous improvement, which generally took place well into the 18th century. In much of the north-eastern region, some reconstructions were even unavoidable, since they were performed on buildings that had been abandoned or damaged during the period of Dutch rule.
There is a kind of paradigm for this process, which began with constructions made of taipa (rammed earth) and loose earth (there is an extremely vast vocabulary relating to taipa constructions in Brazil: taipa-de-mão, taipa de pilão, pau a pique, etc...) with thatched roofs, and then evolved into constructions made of stone and lime mortar with tiled roofs. This is an interesting aspect because it shows that the occupation of the space and its transformation into a territory was also an increasingly "material” process. At the same time (and without any contradiction), this process reveals that, on the one hand, there was an adaptability to the use of traditional techniques and available materials, while, on the other hand, there was a different aesthetic value projected for each of them. In the available documentation, it is frequent to find criticism of thatched houses, demanding that they be changed in order to afford settlements a more civilised appearance. Furthermore, several monks and priests reacted in a similar way to the crude chapels in which they had to worship. One of the first bishops sent to Brazil has been credited with the emblematic phrase: "para Sé de palha, bispo de papelão’’ (for a thatched bishopric, a cardboard bishop)!
Nonetheless, in the late 18th century, not only the secular clergy, but also the religious orders and the lay brotherhoods, had churches in Brazil, particularly in the northeast, that did not correspond to this idea of poverty in any way. One of the most significant reference works about the history of the Brazilian Art of the colonial period is the book by Clarival do Prado Valadares, entitled “Nordeste Histórico e Monumental". And the north-east region was indeed monumental in this "material” sense, since it is the region where the use of stone is most noticeable. But it was also monumental in other senses: the interior of churches also displayed the great wealth of the carved and gilded woodwork of their altarpieces, their walls lined with tiles, and their painted ceilings. These works were paid for with the income from sugar production and underlined the continuous investment that the plantation owners made in ostentatiously displaying the image of their own wealth. Yet it is in the region's civil, urban and rural architecture that we find the greatest number of items to be mentioned here. In regard to these buildings, it is possible to identify the different classes that would serve as long-lasting models to be used in virtually all of the colonial territory, as was the case, for example, with the building that simultaneously functioned as the town hall and prison. Everything began with military architecture, so that it is here that we can find the oldest examples. But, above all, this is the category in which we can note a very interesting series of questions and problems that were immediately raised by the need to defend Brazil.
In his text on the defence system designed for Salvador, Mário Mendonça highlights a crucial aspect that is, in fact, rarely mentioned, namely that initially the enemies in question were, above all, Indians. Therefore, there was a kind of primary defence, consisting of stockades and temporary walls that, in principle, were able to resist the hurling of missile weapons, and which was probably the type of construction used in the first few settlements. Even in Salvador, the building of such a defence system was one of the many actions undertaken by the master Luís Dias, although this later proved unable to withstand the inclement weather and ended up being rendered obsolete by the growth of the city itself. Naturally, the defence against outside enemies was regarded as a matter of great concern. But this was also understood, from the very outset, to be a technological impossibility. In the case of Salvador, it must have been obvious to the builders of the city's defences that the very size of the bay meant that the scale of such work would be so enormous that it was impossible to think about the building of any surrounding fortifications. This is an important consideration because, in a broader interpretation, it can be said that this same dilemma was faced by settlers all along the coastline. Consequently, from the very beginning of the region's colonisation, the Portuguese were forced to make choices in the building of their defences that took into account the role played by the fortifications in marking out the territory, as well as in defending it. Such defensive structures did not absorb the urban centre, but were built alongside it, thus reinforcing the idea of an open city that we mentioned earlier.
There is effectively no real city-fortress to be found in Brazil, but instead there are cities and fortresses. One can recognise the idea of a territory in the way that the defences were planned, and this same territory both included and stretched well beyond the city. The fortresses that make up Salvador's defensive system are possibly the best example of this understanding of the territory. As Mário Mendonça so clearly puts it, these were truly emblematic buildings, designed to have a powerful aesthetic impact. Since they stood in a prominent position in the skyline of the city, they had an undeniable symbolism in the occupation of the territory. The further additions that were later made to the defence system have also turned Salvador into the ideal place for visualising the various types of construction that were used. Despite the successive alterations that were made to virtually all of the city's forts, it is possible to see, for instance, in the beautiful small Fort of Our Lady of Monserrat, a type of construction that was still used in the late 16th century, without bastions and with towers. Originally the Fort of Saint Antony of Barra was of the same type, but in the late 16th century it was given the shape of a star, which, save for the addition of the tower and some other alterations that were made in the 19th and 20th centuries, can still be seen there. But the most emblematic fortification in Salvador is definitely the circular-shaped Fort of the Sea, or the Fort of Saint Marcellus, with a design that was based on the fort of Bugio, in Lisbon. Its construction began in the second half of the 17th century and was completed in 1716.
Another significant example of the territorial defence system of Salvador is the fort of the Morro de São Paulo, whose location made it possible to control the city's supplies. From the 17th century onwards, it was frequently highlighted for its usefulness in all the reports drawn up by military engineers, and, because of this, it was also subjected to continuous restoration work. Also forming part of the defence system for the bay was the Fort of Saint Lawrence on the Island of Itaparica. This broader look at the system also requires us to look at the Fort of Santa Cruz (São Roque do Paraguaçu), which can be considered a remnant of other strongholds built near the navigable rivers that flowed into the bay of Todos os Santos.
As we know, the foundation of Salvador and the establishment there of a "General Government" in 1549, represented a fundamental turning point in the Portuguese crown's relationship with the territory of Brazil. The location of Salvador, in the middle of the Brazilian coast, was literally thought of as the geographical and political centre of another phase of territorial management. It is important to mention that the "General Government” did not abolish the system of hereditary captaincies, but continued to tolerate their existence. To some extent, it superimposed itself on their sphere of action, but it also made use of what was the prime aim of the captaincies: to guarantee the occupation of the land and the income derived from this. Nonetheless, the crown had to take a broader view and ensure the defence of the coast, especially in those areas that had not yet been occupied. Therefore, Salvador became the centre from which successive expeditions were made to explore and occupy the region. The first expedition headed southwards, leading to the foundation of the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565 and recovering control over the region, which had been invaded by the French. The expeditions that headed northwards resulted in the occupation of Paraíba, with the foundation of the city of Filipeia (João Pessoa) in 1585, followed by the fortification of Natal, in Rio Grande do Norte, in 1598. In 1615, it became necessary to expel the French once again, this time from Maranhão, where the city of São Luís was founded, which served as the starting point for the creation of Belém, in the Amazon delta, in 1616. It should be noted that these expeditions led by the crown all resulted in the foundation of urban centres, in the form of cities that then became the focal points of regional occupation. Nestor Goulart Reis Filho coined the phrase cidades do rei (cities of the king) to distinguish such cities from the vilas dos donatários (towns of the donatories). From the point of view of urbanism, this interpretation is highly significant, as it allows us to form a broader picture of a series of parallel actions, in which the crown gave priority to investment in certain areas, but did not neglect the continuing process of exploration.
Later on, we will again refer to the cities of the South and the North in their corresponding texts. Nonetheless, it is important to draw attention to the fact that, in each case, these cities relied heavily on the support of military engineering, which was essential for their development. In Paraíba, the fortifications were designed to ensure the integrated defence of the city and of the flood plain of the River Paraíba, where the sugar plantations and mills had been established. The Fortress of Saint Catherine of Cabedelo was the main feature of this defence system. Its first version, made of taipa, did not last for long. Francisco Frias de Mesquita, the chief engineer of Brazil (16021645), was involved in the second construction of this fortress, and he also participated in the final design of the beautiful Fort of the Magi in Natal, where a tenaille in the shape of a swallow's tail was used for the first time in Brazil. Here, the defence system was originally designed to protect the entrance to the Rio Grande estuary.
The need to maintain, monitor and continuously renovate the various fortifications forced the crown to make a clear and committed investment in the training of military engineers. Many authors have already drawn attention to the importance of such engineers in the development of Brazil. The link between their activities and urbanism was crucial and has been repeatedly stressed. But what must be emphasised is that the military engineers were an elite group endowed with technical knowledge, whose activities and training (which, at a certain point, was partly provided in the colony itself) extended far beyond the scope of military construction. Francisco Frias de Mesquita is himself a perfect example of this phenomenon. In addition to the fortification works that have been attributed to him, he also had a direct hand in the design of the urban layout of São Luís, as well as in the building of the Church of Saint Benedict in Rio de Janeiro. The same kind of links can be established for various other engineers, especially from the 18th century onwards. For example, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament of Saint Anne, in Salvador, with its frontispiece designed by engineer Felipe de Oliveira Mendes or, also in Salvador, the extremely interesting case of the Church of Our Lady of the Conception of Praia. The plan for this building was drawn up in Salvador by the engineer Manuel Cardoso de Saldanha and the structure of the façade in lias was made in Lisbon by the master builder Manuel Vicente, who later took it to Brazil. This church also has the particularity of its strangely angled towers, with one of the corners being placed at the front, a feature that is rarely found elsewhere either in Brazil or in Portugal. This clearly dynamic intention revealed in the towers is repeated inside the church, where the nave has a floor plan in the shape of an elongated octagon. The same type of octagonal floor plan was used at the Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen in Recife, designed by the stonemason/architect Manuel Ferreira Jácome. The two churches are contemporary with one another, both having originally been planned in the 1730s and not completed until the second half of the 18th century. In both cases, the rectangular external structure of the church does not suggest the existence of the polygonal floor plan to be found in the interior, and the relationship with the exterior is reinforced by the verticality produced by the monumental order of the façade. In the Church of Our Lady of the Conception of Praia, a relationship is established with the front of the city's downtown area and the beach. In the Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen, the relationship is established with the "churchyard” of Saint Peter, which is nothing more than a rectangular square or terreiro that surrounds the church and reinforces its urban context. We will later see how significant this shape is.
Nonetheless, although it is appropriate to highlight the role played by engineers and to understand the importance of their activity, including the contribution that they made to religious architecture, in reality it is not generally possible to state with any great certainty who were the architects of most of the churches built in Brazil. This does not, in any way, prevent us from trying to identify their main typological features. But it is also important to stress that this is a task that has already been initiated, but which is still far from being finished. Studies have tended to concentrate on the main religious orders, especially the Jesuits, Franciscans and Benedictines. However, it is necessary to take into account an aspect that, to some extent, was commonly found not only in the religious orders, but also in the works of the secular clergy and in the churches of the lay brotherhoods. This is what might best be described as a context of continuous rivalry between them all, which certainly lay at the basis of the great diversity and richness of the religious architecture to be found in colonial Brazil. Perhaps this is also the reason why it is in the different categories of religious architecture that we can best see and discuss the lines of continuity and the breaks that were introduced in relation to the architecture(s) of the metropolis. Because, while all of these categories undeniably suggest that they belong to the same family, it is in Brazil that we find certain groups of buildings that denote their own expressive particularities.
In this region, one of the architectural groups showing greatest cohesion is the one that Germain Bazin called the "Franciscan school of the Northeast'! He characterised Franciscan constructions as having cloisters with arcades on the lower floor and, on the upper floor, Tuscan columns directly supported by tie beams, which are clearly reminiscent of the second cloister of the Convent of Santa Croce in Florence. This characteristic might also possibly be related to the series of Portuguese cloisters that began to be built in the Renaissance period, with their frequent combination of arches on the lower floor, and straight lintels on the upper floor. Yet, it is mainly the façades and their relationship with the vast open squares that form churchyards in front of them and where the stone cross is located that specifically identify Franciscan churches. And it is precisely in this relationship that Paulo Ormindo de Azevedo sees a possible connection with elements of Indian inspiration, using as examples the Indian-Portuguese churches of Cochin and the state of Kerala.
Overlooking the initial period, still in the 16th century, when the first constructions might have corresponded to the Franciscan ideal of poverty, from the 17th century onwards, historiographers begin to mention two models: the first is a simpler one, perfectly illustrated by the Convent of Saint Antony of Ipojuca (pe) (founded in 1606 and restored after the period of Dutch rule in 1650), with three windows above the three arches of the galilee, surmounted by a straight pediment. The second model is exemplified by the Convent of Saint Antony of Cairu (ba) (c. 1660), consisting of three tiered floors, with five arches on the lower floor, three windows on the middle floor, flanked by volutes and pinnacles, and on the upper floor a central niche, also flanked by volutes and pinnacles. The triangular shape of the façade's composition is reinforced by the single bell tower, which stands slightly further back on one of its sides and, above all, by the magnificent visual setting afforded by the open space in front of the church.
The conjugation of these two models was repeated, with some variations, in the churches of the Franciscan order. It is interesting to consider the case of the Convent of Saint Antony of Igarassu (pe), where one can detect the influence of both models, at different stages in its building, as Nuno Senos indicates. A similar influence of the two models can be observed in the Convent of Our Lady of the Snow in Olinda (pe) and in the Convent of Our Lady of the Angels in Penedo (al). The model of the tiered façade of Cairu can be seen in the ruins of the Convent of Saint Antony of Paraguaçu (ba). It also reappeared in the work undertaken in the second half of the 18th century on the Convent of Saint Antony in João Pessoa (pb), affording the building an almost rococo style, enhanced by the long walled atrium and decorated with tiles depicting episodes from the Passion of Christ, directing our attention to one of the uses that was made of the open space in front of the building - as the setting for the processions included in the liturgical celebration of Easter.
In most cases, the churchyards in front of the Franciscan convents were rectangular in shape, which, as was mentioned before, served to underline their importance in the overall urban landscape, making a clear use of the possibilities offered by perspective. This is the case, for example, of the Convent of Saint Francis in Salvador, whose churchyard is connected to the "terreiro de Jesus”, the square of the church of the Jesuits which stands in front of it, resulting in one of the most significant public places in colonial Brazil. To some extent, we can see here the material embodiment of the rivalry that existed between the orders, since the Church of Saint Francis in Salvador is different from its counterparts. It does not have the traditional galilee and single tower, but instead it has three doors and two towers, as if making its own response to the Jesuits' church.
Nonetheless, the most distinctive feature of the Church of Saint Francis is the magnificent carved and gilded woodwork that completely covers its interior and makes it impossible to dissociate architecture from decoration. It is one of the so-called “igrejas retábulo” (altarpiece churches), one of the most remarkable expressions of the unique aspects of the baroque style in Brazil, to which we can also add in this region the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Recife, so appropriately known as the Capela Dourada (the Golden Chapel).
Generally speaking, the churches of the Third Order of Saint Francis back on to the nave of the convent church. In this case, the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Salvador is an exception. It is also an exception in terms of other characteristics: its façade, completely sculpted out of limestone, is unique, revealing the probable influence of the Spanish plateresque style, credited to the master builder Gabriel Ribeiro.
A great deal has been written about the church of the Jesuits in Salvador, their headquarters in Brazil and today the country's primary cathedral. It is completely redundant to state that it is one of the most important religious buildings from the period of the Portuguese overseas expansion. In addition to the various other cultural aspects that are evoked by the presence of the Jesuits in America, from the specific point of view of art history, the order's aesthetic formulations had an undeniable importance and influence on colonial architecture in Brazil. The so- called “Jesuit floor plan” which consisted of a single nave, either with or without intercommunicating chapels at the sides, is the one that is most commonly found in Brazilian churches. It is not, strictly speaking, a design that was exclusive to the order, but it is significant that the most frequently mentioned reference is that of the Jesuits, even after the warning that Lúcio Costa made in his pioneering study, when he stated: “therefore, to attribute such a vast scope to the designation of “Jesuit art” is clearly inappropriate” (Costa, 1941).
Even taking such care as is necessary in these matters, it can be said that the models promoted by the Jesuits clearly had a major impact on religious architecture, not only in terms of their floor plans, but also in terms of their façades. Ranging from the simplestmodel with just one door, two or three windows and a gable pediment with a central oculus, which the priests used in several missionary churches and which consistently reappeared in many chapels and parish churches of minor towns (which, in several cases, had in fact previously been used as the mission churches) to the more sophisticated model of the façade of the church of Salvador, whose formal base is a direct invocation of the tradition of the Gesù in Rome and the churches of the Society of Jesus in Portugal. It is important, particularly in the case of the Jesuits, to draw attention to the manifest erudition of the design, even when it is a simple one. The Church of Our Lady o.Í.SF&Ç.Ç. in Olinda, which is chronologically the first one to be mentioned in the Northeast, is the best example of this. In its beautiful and sober façade, we can clearly see its relationship with the Church of Saint Rock in Lisbon, founded by the Jesuit architect Francisco Dias.
It is unfair to overlook the importance that other religious orders also had (especially the Carmelites and the Benedictines), but there is no room here to enumerate possible typological comparisons, for which, as has already been said, there are not even any studies to support these ideas. Nonetheless, mention should be made of what is possibly the most impressive characteristic of the built heritage of Portuguese origin to be found in Brazil, namely the watchful and, at the same time, almost symbiotic presence of the churches. There are numerous churches and they are everywhere. They impose themselves on cities and determine their outlines. If there is one particular aspect that is perfectly suited to the application of the term baroque (apart from all the obvious splendour of their interiors) it is undoubtedly the relationship that the churches establish with the urban layout. They were always built in places that afforded them the best possible view, whether this called for their construction in high places or involved providing them with a square or open space at the front. But it is also important to highlight the concrete role that the siting of churches had on the dynamics of urban growth. Jesuits almost always positioned their churches in the centres of towns and the Franciscans gradually moved closer and closer to them. In the case of the Benedictines, however, it was, as a rule, the city that drew closer to them.
Yet it was not just in the dynamics of urban growth that churches were to play such an important role, and they also had a major influence beyond the large urban centres. Actually, even in medium and small-sized centres, their presence is quite remarkable, both in qualitative and quantitative terms, as is borne out by the series of examples that are listed in this book.
In Pernambuco, we find the case of the town of Igarassu, the first official settlement of the captaincy, where the Parish Church of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian is located. Traditionally identified as the oldest church in Brazil, it is not in fact the original church commissioned by Duarte Coelho in the 16th century. Even this church was only completed in the 17th century, and was rebuilt after the fire caused by the Dutch. The portal, which is almost classical in its design, being framed by two pilasters, is the link between the successive buildings that are in fact one and the same. In addition to this beautiful example, which represents a type of bare simplicity, in the same town we also find the magnificent examples of the Franciscan Convent of Saint Antony (already mentioned earlier) and the later-built Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Retreat of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which display another type of façade with five openings for windows and doors, of which there are several examples in this region.
In Alagoas, there is the example of Penedo, the town at the mouth of the River São Francisco, where attention is drawn to the already mentioned Franciscan Convent of Saint Mary of the Angels, as well as the imposing Parish Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Church of Saint Gonsalo Garcia of the Mulattoes and the exceptional Church of Our Lady of the Chains, with an intricately carved interior. In São Cristóvão, the capital of the former captaincy of Sergipe, mention should once again be made of the Franciscan convent, but also of the Church and Convent of Mount Carmel, which in this case reveals the influence of the Franciscan model with its galilee and three windows, and, next to it, the Church of the Third Order of Mount Carmel whose more simply composed façade (with just one door and two windows on the upper floor) combines the decorative elements carved out of limestone with an impressively vertical pediment, which lends an air of lightness and dynamism to the whole. Also in São Cristóvão, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People has a very interesting façade, where the same simple composition of one door and two windows, with just a single tower at the side, is enhanced by the stone corners and a portal that, dating from the 18th century, has a neo-classical appearance. The same can be said about the Parish Church of Saint Amaro das Brotas (se), also dating back to the 18th century, with an unusual stone portal that displays an unexpected synthesis for its time. The door-posts are composed of pseudo-caryatids, which are suggestive of an anachronistic Mannerist vocabulary, completed on the upper floor by a niche framed by floral elements and volutes. This kind of reworking of erudite values performed by the native craftsmen (sometimes combining elements from quite different origins in the same work) is one of the most common and significant features to be noted in all of the religious architecture in colonial Brazil.
In Bahia, we can mention several towns, but the most eloquent example is probably that of Cachoeira, which clearly illustrates the dynamics of urban growth in the region of Recôncavo, something that is reflected in the great wealth of its built heritage. As far as its religious architecture is concerned, mention should be made of the beautiful lias portal of the Parish Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, with its three round arches crowned by a niche, a paradigmatic example of this erudition filtered from the architectural treatises that we were talking about (this is true for the portal of the Parish Church of Saint Amaro of the Purification, also in Recôncavo). The interior of the Church of the Third Order of Mount Carmel, which is adjacent to the convent, is entirely covered in exuberant carved and gilded woodwork, displaying possible oriental influences, which will be mentioned again, especially when dealing with the region of Minas Gerais. In terms of civil architecture, Cachoeira has an extremely interesting cluster of sobrados dating back to the 18th century, with a specific category of shop and mezzanine, which was developed there as a result of the flooding of the River Paraguaçu. But one of the most representative buildings of Cachoeira's heritage is its town hall and prison.
The building that housed both the town hall and prison represents an important category in the architecture of colonial Brazil. A pioneering study was made of such buildings by Paulo Tedim Barreto, which revealed the existence of a formal model based on a floor plan for a two- storey building. The prison was located on the ground floor and the rooms where the town council's senate met were on the upper floor. These were sober buildings, but they had a clearly intentional impact on the urban environment, reinforced in several instances by staircases or arcades (and sometimes towers), as well by their generally isolated position, which highlighted the overall appearance of their façades. The prime example in Brazil is clearly the Town Hall and Prison of Salvador, which was possibly the first instance of such a building, but the formal model for their creation came from the metropolis, resulting from the renovation work that was carried out on the town halls there, especially from the reign of King Manuel I onwards. In Bahia, several such buildings have been preserved, including those of Cachoeira, Jaguaripe, Maragojipe, São Francisco do Conde, Porto Seguro and Rio de Contas. Another significant and well preserved group of such buildings can be seen in Ceará, at Aracati, Aquiraz, Caucaia and Icó, maintaining the same model, although some of these were built in the 19th century. One of the most interesting cases is Vila Flor (rn). The town hall there was built in the second half of the 18th century, following the introduction of the Pombaline legislation that decreed that all of the former missions should be raised to the status of a town. The importance of this political gesture - the creation of the town - is reflected in the imposing grandeur of the city's town hall, with its quite singular feature of a portico with arcades running along three of its façades.
It was said earlier that the construction of the Brazilian territory cannot be understood without taking into account the parallel construction of the city, its rural area and region. This process is most noticeable, from a material point of view, in the Northeast. Although a great deal has now been lost, there are still several examples of the extremely rich rural architecture that supported the sugarcane plantations and others linked to the expansion of livestock farming. In recent years, various studies have been made on this theme, which have proved crucial not only for identifying common features and establishing dates, but especially for insisting on the preservation of this heritage.
Several examples are presented here. They range from the simplest types of single-storey houses with front porches, which have survived at the estates in Piauí, to more sophisticated examples, such as the Freguesia Sugar Mill, the São Roque de Paraguaçu Sugar Mill and the Lagoa Sugar Mill, in Bahia, or the Poço Comprido Sugar Mill, in Pernambuco. Generally speaking, the most imposing of the large-sized houses were to be found at the sugarcane plantations that were furthest from the cities, showing that the investment in domestic infrastructures was greater when the sugar mill and its plantation were isolated and required the owners to stay there for longer periods of time. Naturally, the owners of the great estates were also the owners of the most imposing manor houses in the towns and cities, of which there are still a significant number of examples in Salvador.
But, to some extent, the buildings that represent a special particularity of the heritage of Portuguese origin in the Northeast of Brazil are the rural chapels. Like the churches in the cities, they also mark out the occupation and settlement of a much vaster territory. They are included among the groups of rural buildings, being the ones that always obtained the greatest investment. Among other reasons, the great devotion that was shown in their building serves to explain why, in many cases, only the chapels have been preserved, while the other buildings did not survive. Nonetheless, there are also many cases in which only the chapels were built from scratch. They were literally built in the countryside, thus consecrating the landscape itself. One of the most interesting examples is the Chapel of Our Lady of Help, in Santa Rita (pb), which was built to honour a vow, after the Portuguese had obtained victory in a battle against the Dutch in 1636. This chapel has a porch with Tuscan columns, considered to be the most erudite example. The front porch is a characteristic feature of several rural chapels in the Northeast. They were ideally suited to the climatic conditions of the area, affording shelter for those attending religious services, but they also served to reinforce the hierarchy that led to the creation of separate areas within the church, with some people being allowed into the church, while others were forced to remain outside.
Another example is provided by the chapel of the former Una Sugar Mill, in the same municipality of Santa Rita (pb). This building, dating from the early 18th century, has a beautiful stone portal, and a hexagonal floor plan, which makes it a close relative of the exceptional Casa da Torre de Garcia d'Avila, in Tatuapara, Mata de São João (ba). The building of this magnificent Renaissance hexagonal chapel began in the 16th century and clearly demonstrates how the plantation's owner was immediately committed to the region's development, as well as underlining the continuous investment that was made in rural houses. This exceptional architectural example, which, from a chronological point of view, should have been the first to be mentioned, brings this brief introduction to an end, inviting readers to take a look at the many examples that now follow.