Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro and Eliane Canedo
Research and contributions: Cristiane Titoneli
From castle to floodplain
With the corsairs vanquished, mining once again started to drive the economy of this colony during the early XVIII century. Becoming better known, the Port of Rio de Janeiro grew more powerful as the outflow point for ores mined in Minas Gerais State, carried along the Caminho Novo trail from the mining town of Ouro Preto to Porto Estrela on the shore of the Guanabara Bay.
The city was also moving downwards: from the top of the Morro da Saudade hill (Castelo, now flattened and cleared), the first city street – Rua Direita (today the Rua Primeiro de Março) – crept over the floodplain, running between the Castelo and São Bento hills. It was actually an extension of the Ladeira da Misericórdia alley in the old town, which extended out towards the São Bento hill and more distant lands that were still lying vacant in the northern part of the estate, overlooked by the gentle slopes of the Saúde, Livramento, Providência, Pinto and São Diogo hills.
Although Rua Direita was the main road for travelling inland around the bay and through the area close to Castelo, it was not the only route. Other streets soon began to appear, like Rua Capueruçu (today Rua da Alfândega) and Rua de Mata-Cavalos (now Rua do Riachuelo). Running northwest, they led to the Jesuit sugar mills; to the south, they ran from the Ladeira da Ajuda alley along the Caminho do Catete path, continuing through the Botafogo district to the Moinho d’El Rei mill (today the Lagoa neighborhood). Forming the basic structure of the city, this framework still today underpins the layout, traffic and functioning of this metropolis.
The XVIII century in Rio de Janeiro was the time of the Brazilian Gold Rush, attacks by French corsairs, the construction of its aqueducts, fountains and mills, powerful religious orders, Viceroys and the transfer of the colonial capital from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro in 1763. This was also the century of thriving commercial activities, together with a surging slave trade bringing in workers for the gold mines, the sugar mills and household services. The century when landmarks were built, like the Aquedutos da Carioca aqueduct, the Largo do Paço square, the Carmo church, the Cadeia Velha jail, the Paço dos Governadores, and the modernization of the port in front of this Governor’s mansion.
For a long time, four religious institutions dominated the view of the city for new arrivals on vessels mooring in the Guanabara Bay. In front of the Paço dos Vice-Reis palace that was home to the Viceroys, canoes and sloops carried inflows and outflows of people and goods between the stone wharf and the Chafariz da Pirâmide fountain adorning the seafront on the old Praia de Manuel de Brito beach.