Lat: -22.903538959128000, Long: -43.209586866558000

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Historical Background and Urbanism

After receiving the first news about Brazil, King Manuel I ordered several reconnaissance expeditions, such as those of Américo Vespúcio (1501), Gaspar Coelho (1503), Cristóvão Pires (1511) and Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan) (1519). It is not known which one of these expeditions was the first to arrive at the bay named Guanabara by the natives – in Tupi it meant penetrating water, wide river, or cove. The name Rio de Janeiro has appeared on charts and maps since 1522, as the first travellers considered it to be the mouth of a wide river. The city founded on the shores of Guanabara Bay, i.e. on the estuary of the river known as Rio de Janeiro, obeyed the rule usually followed in attributing names to most of the towns and cities in Brazil, where the landscape and geographical location were the main criteria for deciding on the names of new settlements. Despite the great practicality of the Portuguese, however, the Christian baptism given to the city when it was founded remains somewhat mythical. The bay had become a privileged area for European piracy from early times. The French, Dutch and English traded with the natives, loading their ships with the produce of the land, mainly brazilwood. The French were the most frequent visitors. They aimed at controlling a strategic point in the territory in order to ensure commercial and political hegemony over the Southern Atlantic. Three French ships under the command of Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon arrived at Guanabara Bay in November 1555. They carried around 600 people, including mercenaries and adventurers, who left France with the aim of establishing a colony. They founded a fort, named after Admiral Coligny, on an island in the interior of the bay, in front of the entrance to the bar, in order to control it. They counted on the complicity of the Tamoio Indians from the region. Some colonisers built their houses at Flamengo beach, on the mouth of the River Carioca. The Portuguese reaction to the establishment of the new colony began in 1560 and continued until 1567. Estácio de Sá, captain of the last expedition, founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro in 1565 at the small beach to the left of the bar, between the hills of Cara de Cão and Pão de Açúcar. That narrow strip of land was a protected area for ships and for the construction of a palisade. It served as a springboard for besieging the French. According to the reports of Portuguese missionaries who accompanied the conflict, Saint Sebastian himself participated in the battle, disguised as an intrepid soldier. The city’s foundation, therefore, became associated with a holy war against the French heretics – many of whom were Protestants – and the rebel heathens of the land. Its name, besides paying homage to the king of Portugal, Dom Sebastião, paid tribute to the bravest and holiest warrior. The battles had a protective saint and resulted in the martyrdom of Estácio de Sá, who was killed by a poisoned arrow in one of the last decisive battles. Once the French were defeated, Mem de Sá, the general governor of Brazil at the time, moved the first urban centre to the interior of the bay, building it on top of a hill opposite the entrance to the bar, which would become known as Morro do Castelo (Castle Hill), due to the fortress that was built there. It was there that the Jesuits founded their college and the parish church and Town Hall were built there. The hill soon became too small for the city, which gradually spread onto the flood plain as the swamps that existed in the area were drained and the land reclaimed. The road that ran along the entire beach, separating the swamps from the bay and linking the Morro do Castelo to the hill where the Benedictines had built their monastery, became the main axis of the city’s expansion. This road was named Rua Direita in the early 17th century and took on the role that such roads normally played as structural elements in the expansion of Portuguese urban settlements in America, being very similar to other earlier experiences in Madeira and the Azores. This axis was the starting point for the gradual opening of new routes, converted into streets, defining, in an irregular chequered pattern, the city’s layout on the plain reclaimed by the drainage of the swamps. The routes which departed from the city and led to the sugar mills and plantations on the bay also served as guidelines for its growth. The regularity of the urban layout was generally attributed to the presence of military engineers from the Portuguese mainland, such as Batista Antonelli (1582) or Michel de Lescolles (1649). It was also the result of the rules and regulations of the town councils, imposed by the town planners in their constant def- inition of the layout and demarcation of the streets. In the late 16th century, Rio de Janeiro had three sugar mills and 150 residents with a vicar and many slaves to work the land, thus making this early settlement the leader of a more complex system for the occupation of the entire territory of Guanabara. Although it played a secondary role in sugar production in Portuguese America – being surpassed by Pernambuco and Bahia – and was on the periphery of the main trading routes for this product in the Atlantic, the southern location of the city provided it with exceptional conditions for transit and navigation between the Spanish possessions in the estuary of the River Plate and the slave ports in Africa during the 17th century. In the final years of the 17th century, the discovery of mines made the port the hub of an intense flow of people and goods. This position gave the city of Rio de Janeiro greater political and economic importance within the colony and the Portuguese Empire itself. Its key location would turn it into the target for two invasions undertaken by French pirates in 1710 and 1711 as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. The first was unsuccessful, but the second led to the conquest of the city by the French and to the request for a ransom. Due to the need to ensure the city’s defence, the French engineer Jean Massé was hired for this purpose in 1713. He was entrusted with the project for the city’s defence, with the building of new fortifications. The highlight of the project was, however, the enclosure of the city by building a wall around it; in the eyes of the Portuguese authorities, this was essential for its defence in the event of new invasions by land, but it also served to prevent the uncontrollable desertion of sailors and soldiers who headed towards Minas attracted by the illusion of easy riches. The lack of resources, coupled with the urban growth that had taken place, did, however, lead to the failure of this project, although the aim of surrounding the city with walls was never completely abandoned throughout the 18th century. In fact, the urban limits would be defined by its countryside, in the area known as Campo, in keeping with the modern idea of an open city in contrast to a walled city. Facing the bay, at the heart of the city, the main square of colonial Rio de Janeiro was laid out. Built on the land reclaimed from the sea in front of the Convent of Mount Carmel were The Treasury House and the Mint, and housed in the same building, renovated in 1743, in keeping with the design of the engineer José Fernandes Alpoim, were the Royal Warehouses and the Governors’ and Viceroys’ Palaces. On the other side of the square stood the buildings erected by the judge of orphans António Telles de Menezes. From here, one moved into the narrow alley named Beco do Peixe, which in turn ended at the beach of the same name, where the fish brought ashore in small boats was sold. On the opposite side, between the sea and the building where the Town Hall and Prison were housed until 1751, the stalls of black women were to be found scattered, selling fruit and vegetables, a trade that was controlled by the Town Hall. Rio de Janeiro became the seat of the viceroyalty of Brazil In 1763 and a series of interventions by the viceroys sought to equip it with buildings and facilities corresponding to its new status. The water supply had been organised since 1723 with the construction of the first fountain in Largo da Carioca, thus named because the water came from the springs of the river of the same name. The aqueduct that brought this water to the city, which can still be seen today standing on a double Roman arch, was given this form during the governorship of Gomes Freire de Andrade between 1744 and 1750. The first fountain was followed by many others – those of Largo do Carmo, Junta (1750-1753), Glória (1772), Marrecas (1785), Lagarto (1786), Largo do Moura (1794) and Campo de Santana (1808) – thus equipping the city with a water supply network. In 1789, under the viceroyalty of Luiz de Vasconcelos e Souza, a major promoter of urban improvements and embellishments in the city, the square of the viceroys’ palace – the heart of the city – was completely remodelled under the supervision of the Swedish engineer Jacques Funk. Another remarkable work promoted by the viceroy was the construction of a public promenade on the outskirts of the city, marking the first steps towards developing the relationship between the city’s residents and the landscape as an activity of contemplation and leisure. This idea was reinforced in the two pavilions dedicated to Apollo and Mercury, their interiors being decorated with feathers and shells respectively, in addition to displaying a series of landscape paintings by Leandro Joaquim depicting aspects of the city’s daily life, its festivities and its close links with the sea. Dom João, Prince Regent of Portugal, arrived at Largo do Paço in March 1808. He transformed the city of Rio de Janeiro into the seat of the Portuguese Empire. The retinue of noblemen that then moved to the city began settling on the outskirts, building a series of palatial houses near the public promenade, in the Campo area, on the roads leading to Mata Cavalos and Mata Porcos, which greatly modified the landscape of the new city-court. The use of a farm located beyond the city as a royal residence, in a place known as São Cristóvão, led to the urban growth towards the north, to the area that would be named Cidade Nova (New City). The queen, who liked to be far away from her husband, ordered the construction of a house at Botafogo beach, to the south, which attracted other noblemen, who began occupying the area which has since then been characterised by their country houses. The court’s presence radically changed the area and the lifestyles in Rio de Janeiro. It was necessary to civilise the new capital, but, on the other hand, the court was itself heavily influenced by local customs. Several buildings in the city were built and adapted in order to house government institutions. The Royal Gunpowder Factory was established in a sugar mill located in a remote quarter on the banks of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. Delighted by the beautiful nature of the place, the Prince Regent created the Royal Garden, introducing plants from Mauritius, including the Caribbean royal palm (Roystonea oleracea). The ruins of the unfinished New Cathedral in Largo de São Francisco de Paula were adapted for the construction of the Military Academy. The Royal Museum, the General Police Inspectorate, the infantry barracks and the City Council Senate building were installed in Campo de Santana. The General Police Inspectorate was instituted in 1808 in order to promote urban improvements, just as in Lisbon. One of the most famous measures introduced by the Inspectorate, starting on 11th June, 1809, was to prohibit jalousies and muxarabis (wooden lattices of Arab origin) on house windows and doors. Considered as an archaic solution based on medieval and Arab traditions – “Gothic customs” according to Father Perereca – their use, in the eyes of 19th-century Europeans, gave the city an exotic and oriental look. The house owners were given an eight-day deadline to remove them and replace them with window-panes and iron balconies. Despite the widespread adherence to the new fashion, the change was not immediately effective and the drawings of Debret and Ender, produced nearly a decade later, still show the jalousies and muxarabis. Single-storey houses were still the norm in the city in the early 19th century. In an effort to give the city the appearance of a court, incentives were created, such as that of 1811, which granted tax exemptions to those who built sobrados in the so-called New City, i.e. beyond the city’s Campo area, which was beginning to be occupied by the new influx of people, or the curious resolution of 1817 that forced owners of vacant plots of land to replace walls with ground-level façades, albeit of wood, with doors and windows that could remain closed and so give the impression that the building work had been suspended for an unknown period of time. As it was not possible to create a city-court in such a short period of time, at least its scenery should be built. The presence of foreigners, mainly Englishmen, changed the city’s appearance. In 1809, a farm was bought on the slopes of Morro da Providência for the construction of the English Cemetery, authorised by Dom João in the previous year. The location of the cemetery, on the seashore at Saco da Gamboa, enabled the bodies of English people that had died on board ship to be taken directly to their last resting place. Since the Anglican cemetery was located in the suburbs of the city, no specific conditions were imposed regarding its construction. In accordance with the trade agreement that allowed the English to build churches as long as they resembled houses and did not have bells, the Christ Church, the city’s first protestant church, was built as a residence in the former Rua dos Barbonos, close to the Largo da Ajuda, in 1819. The Count of Barca, a minister of Dom João, was responsible for the disembarkation of a French artistic mission in Rio de Janeiro in 1816. The Court’s pomp introduced other lifestyles into the city, in addition to promoting a new relationship with the urban fabric, which was marked by royal festivities, and encouraging the spread of its ephemeral architecture. Three areas became the catalysts of urban and social life: the Largo do Paço and the Rua Direita were the gateways to the city, centres of festivities and court rituals; Rocio Pequeno, with the construction of the Royal Theatre, became the place for the entertainment of the elites; and Campo de Santana, in turn, became the place for popular entertainment, with the periodic construction of arenas for bullfighting. The area known as Campo was, throughout the 18th century, the springboard leading to the hinterland, a vast free area of mires and swamps. Campo – and not the walls, which had always been planned, but were never built – was the border between the country and the city. The early 19th-century urban growth inevitably spread over this area.

José Simões Belmont Pessôa

Religious Architecture

Military Architecture

Equipment and Infrastructures

Housing