{"id":73465,"date":"2023-02-12T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T13:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=73465"},"modified":"2023-02-19T13:01:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T16:01:04","slug":"from-icon-to-dust-100-years-since-the-destruction-of-downtown-rio-de-janeiros-morro-do-castelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=73465","title":{"rendered":"From Icon to Dust: 100 Years Since the Destruction of Downtown Rio de Janeiro’s Morro do Castelo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Water jets remove earth from Morro do Castelo. Photo taken from the bottom of Santa Casa de Miseric\u00f3rdia. Credit: Augusto Cesar Malta de Campos\/Instituto Moreira Salles Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On the centenary of the demolition of Morro do Castelo<\/a>, we recover the memory of this extraordinary and often forgotten geography essential to the history of Rio de Janeiro. Equipped with its own historiography, the hill’s slopes witnessed over centuries the pain of attempts to tame the misery, enslavement, unequal economic development, and rapid urbanization of the city. In 1922, the centenary of Brazilian independence<\/a>, there was a complete destruction of the hill motivated by a desire to ‘modernize and cleanse’ Brazil’s then-capital and make it ‘more European’. Thus, 100 years ago, one of the city’s first landmarks was demolished: Morro do Castelo, or Castle Hill.<\/h4>\n

The destruction of Morro do Castelo produced new outcasts in the city. Evictees\u2014most of whom were from the lower social classes\u2014were left to seek housing in informal tenements<\/a>, peripheries or hillside squats, especially in Centro<\/a> and the North Zone<\/a>. This process was part of a pattern observed throughout the 20th century of self-organization by the working classes to meet their needs neglected by the State. In the fight for housing, people created new ways of inhabiting and living in the city. The favela is one of these solutions.<\/h4>\n

From City Landmark to Landmark of Backwardness<\/em><\/h3>\n

Initially this hill in the center of Rio was called Morro do Descanso, or Restful Hill, due to the difficulty of its conquest and colonization. Home to one of the main Portuguese forts on the Guanabara Bay<\/a>, the S\u00e3o Tiago de Miseric\u00f3rdia Fort<\/a>, Morro do Castelo was fundamental in defending against foreign invasions, as well as being the second and definitive birthplace of the city\u2019s creation and center point from which the urban occupation of Rio radiated outward. Its golden era, however, ended in ruins. You could say that despite not being the first or the last hill demolition in Rio, the dismantling of Castelo shaped the urbanization of Rio in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve brought a large and old hill down and a new city, a white city, has emerged\u2014this is what future chroniclers of Rio de Janeiro will be saying in a few years time about the year of grace that is 1922. The old Castelo agonizes\u2026 Little by little it slips away from land to sea and a new city, all white like a virgin, quickly starts to appear on the still disgusting, red, giant dump. From the enormous dying hump enters a bleeding neighborhood, like a monstrous birthing, as the elements of existence of the new city emerge!… We will then have a white city. The city of the future. Not the city of the future\u2014or better, futurist city\u2014as conceived in the fantastical imagination of American engineers\u2026 No. The white city won\u2019t be a North American city. It\u2019ll be a pure and simply Brazilian city\u2026 And alongside the old, decrepit, exhausted city, which thought with an unconnected brain, always imitating the institutions of others\u2026 next to the old, ignorant, and pretentious city that drinks tea at five o\u2019clock because that\u2019s what they do in London, with nonchalant airs because that\u2019s what Paris orders\u2026 comes the white and Brazilian city! There\u2019s much to hope for from it! And with it comes a new era!… 1922 is both a date and a milestone.\u201d \u2014 Benjamim Costallat<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Morro do Castelo was the largest and most famous hill demolition in central Rio, but other hills experienced the same fate including Morro do Senado where the Pra\u00e7a Cruz Vermelha is today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the above excerpt from the chronicle The White City<\/em>, Benjamim Costallat<\/a> critiques the destruction of the city\u2019s birthplace, the lack of thought from the nation’s political leaders, as well as discomfort with the idea of cleansing Rio’s central region where black, poor, and favela residents lived. Costallat evidences that the urban problem goes beyond that of housing and circulating in the city. The fashion was to establish a new model of civilization. According to Costallat, the destruction of Morro do Castelo<\/a> was the result of a perceived need to erase the past in the attempt to achieve this model. Despite being the largest and best known hill to be destroyed in Rio’s downtown, others had the same fate, like Morro do Senado which today is the Pra\u00e7a da Cruz Vermelha (Red Cross Square).<\/p>\n

The city of S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o do Rio de Janeiro\u2014the original name for the city of Rio\u2014has an indelible topography<\/a> of hills and swamps that is recognized worldwide. Situated between the sea and the hillsides which were home to the first inhabitants and shaped the arrival of new ones, over the centuries the landscape was re-signified with the hillsides and lower areas transformed into frontiers of discrimination and racial, economic, and social hierarchy.<\/p>\n

The city was founded in 1565 on Morro Cara de C\u00e3o<\/a> at the mouth of the Guanabara Bay next to Morro da Urca<\/a>. The second and definitive installation in the city<\/a> occurred in 1567 at the top of Morro do Castelo, a strategic point for maintaining Portuguese rule. The new seat of the city was chosen as the hill faced Villegagnon Island<\/a> where a French colony threatened Portuguese dominion of the city. Morro do Castelo was strategic for structuring a firm defense in case of new invasion attempts.<\/p>\n

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Morro do Castelo in the landscape of central Rio with the Sugarloaf Mountain in the background. Credit: Augusto C\u00e9sar Malta de Campos\/Instituto Moreira Salles Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For centuries, the city of Rio de Janeiro was extremely important for the development of the Portuguese colony. The arrival of the royal family in 1808<\/a> consolidated once and for all Rio’s central role in the administration, politics, and culture of the Portuguese Empire. Brazil went from being an important trading hub, colony, and port trading in enslaved peoples, to a kingdom equal in status to Portugal. Rio de Janeiro became the capital of the Portuguese Empire and later, from 1815, of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves<\/a>. From 1808 to the Liberal Revolution of Porto (1920-1821)<\/a>, Rio de Janeiro was the only European capital outside continental Europe. Whether as a capital of the colony, Portuguese Empire, Brazilian Empire, or Republic of Brazil, Morro do Castelo had been a strategic point and the heart of the city since the 16th century.<\/p>\n

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Morro do Castelo at the heart of Rio de Janeiro’s downtown area. Credit: Augusto C\u00e9sar Malta de Campos\/Instituto Moreira Salles Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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‘The Castelo and Santo Antonio hills – Improvements’ in the newspaper Jornal do Brasil<\/em> on August 4, 1922. Credit: Jornal do Brasil<\/em> Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1920s, the Brazilian population experienced a period of great effervescence and change in the urban landscape, especially in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s then-capital. The attempt to erase the colonial image combined with the longing to transform Rio into a \u201cParis of the Tropics<\/a>\u201d fostered physical changes such as the demolition of hills, tenement houses, and buildings<\/a> that were at odds with the capital’s new, European image. It was at this time, in an attempt to erase the colonial and backwards image of the country, that Morro do Castelo was once again seen as a strategic element in the city’s plans for the future.<\/p>\n

The peak of this process occurred during the administration of Rodrigues Alves (1902-1906)<\/a>, president of the Republic, and of engineer Francisco Pereira Passos (1902-1906)<\/a>, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, appointed by the president to the role. Both have been enshrined in history for the drastic interventions they oversaw across Rio’s urban landscape inspired by the modernization of Paris<\/a> realized by Georges-Eug\u00e8ne Haussmann<\/a> and Napoleon III<\/a>. The Alves-Pereira Passos era saw the construction of Avenida Central (today Avenida Rio Branco), the National Library<\/a>, Municipal Theater<\/a>, National Museum of Fine Arts<\/a>, and more. The Passos government became known for \u201cknocking it down<\/a>,\u201d as hundreds of constructions, historic buildings, and homes were destroyed during the modernization process.<\/p>\n

In this context, the occupations, informal settlements, tenements, and favelas were understood as urban problems and social maladjustments<\/a>. Their inhabitants\u2014poor and black people\u2014inherited the stigma<\/a> held by the elites of being the dangerous class<\/em>. Thus, the favela, present in the Rio urban scene for at least two decades<\/a> by 1922, was seen as a target of repression, control, and cleansing\u2014the only public policies aimed at these spaces.<\/p>\n

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‘What Remains of Morro do Castelo Church.’ Credit: Augusto C\u00e9sar Malta de Campos\/Acervo do Instituto Moreira Salles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The racist, eugenic<\/a>, cleansing ideas propagated by newspapers in the 19th century were based on the notion of progress that shaped various European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to these theories, Brazil needed to be \u201cimproved\u201d through racial refinement by encouraging European immigration so as to purify the Brazilian race of its indigenous and African elements. It was understood that this \u201cregeneration\u201d would occur through whitening<\/a>, mixing, and cleansing public policies aimed at instilling new habits in the population.<\/p>\n

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Morro do Castelo in 1920 offered principally affordable housing in historic buildings in the center of Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Augusto C\u00e9sar Malta de Campos\/Acervo do Instituto Moreira Salles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a city previously ravaged by a series of epidemics<\/a>, cleansing perspectives ran through the authorities’ and Rio elites’ discourse and was used as justification to remove tenements in the center of Rio de Janeiro. In this period, various public health figures pointed to the need<\/a> to remove hills, infill swamps, widen roads, and apply codes of civil conduct as public health measures. The cleansing focused on blaming the poor and their housing for the unsanitary conditions in cities and the spread of diseases.<\/p>\n

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Low-income housing in historic buildings on Morro do Castelo in 1921, before the hill was destroyed in 1922. Credit: Augusto C\u00e9sar Malta de Campos\/Acervo do Instituto Moreira Salles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Urban Cleansing, Morro do Castelo, and the 1922 World Expo<\/h3>\n

In 1922, the commemoration of the centenary of Brazilian independence<\/a> brought to the fore the idea of transforming Rio de Janeiro into a model of national progress. To prove its modernity and capacity for achievement to the world, the Brazilian and Rio governments decided to organize a World Expo as an event to celebrate<\/a> 100 years of independence. Morro do Castelo was destroyed with the pretext of making room for the universal exposition, with hoes, explosions, and powerful water jets.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Epit\u00e1cio Pessoa<\/a> (1919-1922) decided to hold a World Expo to mark the occasion and present Brazil as a modern, civilized republic to the world\u2026 The model for the ambitious project was the European international expositions of the 19th century, in particular those in London (1851, 1862) and Paris (1878, 1889). In this context, the host country received exhibiting nations, presented its national production, and above all showcased the State capacity to modify the urban space on the international stage. Traditionally these expositions featured radical transformations in cities: opening avenues, transposition of rivers and lakes, infilling, etc. A key moment for the modernization of Brazil.\u201d \u2014 Fl\u00e1vio Moraes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Morro do Castelo demolition works taking place on what is currently Rua do M\u00e9xico. On the left, the foundations of the National Library; at the top, the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o Church, 1921. Credit: Augusto Malta\/Instituto Moreira Salles Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1921, over 5,000 people lived on Morro do Castelo. Even the groups who defended the permanence of the hill, such as newspaper Jornal do Brasil<\/em>, only highlighted the historical value of the locale and the need to conserve traditional architecture. The right to housing wasn\u2019t discussed, except in the case of writer Lima Barreto<\/a> in his chronicle Megalomania<\/em><\/a>, published by Revista Careta<\/em> in 1920.<\/p>\n