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Water and Social Space: Using georeferenced maps and geocoded images to enrich the history of Rio de Janeiro's fountains

2014; Professor Emer. Evangelos Livieratos; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

1790-3769

Alida C. Metcalf,

Urban and sociocultural dynamics

Summary: Water infrastructure is essential to any city, but especially so in the history of Rio de Janeiro. Historically, Rio de Janeiro lacked easy access to fresh water. Not only was it not situated along a river but it was impractical to dig wells over much of the original city because of marshes and a high water table. A single aqueduct completed in the eighteenth century supplied the city with water until the nineteenth century when additional aqueducts began to be built. By necessity, public fountains were vital for the city. The public spaces around fountains were frequented by many residents, the majority of whom were slaves responsible for the delivery of water. Using a geospatial database with georeferenced historical maps and geocoded historical images, this article explores the waterworks of the city of Rio de Janeiro in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, paying particular attention to the functional, monumental, and social aspects of fountains. Despite its name, the city of Rio de Janeiro was not built along a river. Unlike ancient and early modern European cities that typically relied on rivers in addition to wells, aqueducts, and fountains for fresh water, 1 Rio could not. Situated on a hill, named the Morro do Castelo (Castle Hill), the early city had limited water. As the city moved down from the hill and spread out on the flat terrain along the Guanabara Bay, marshes and a high water table made it difficult to dig wells. On the nearby hills, wells could be sunk or streams diverted, but these hilltop sites benefitted mainly the monasteries, convents, and forts. The city was largely supplied with water via a single aqueduct finished in the eighteenth century. Known as the Carioca aqueduct, it fed only a few public fountains until the early nineteenth century. By necessity, public fountains were vital to this city. Designed to be aesthetically pleasing, the major fountains stood in squares or along streets, and around them a public space came into being. These public spaces were frequented by many, but the majority were slaves responsible for the delivery of water. Historians have studied historical maps to determine the location of fountains in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and have examined historical images to probe the meanings of fountains and their social spaces, but a geospatial database opens up new ways for historians to understand how water and slavery were entwined at Rio de Janeiro’s fountains. Historical maps enable the historian to visualize the early cartographic knowledge of the Guanabara Bay, to perceive the initial layout of the settlement of Rio de Janeiro, to locate the nearby sources of fresh water, and to accompany the building of waterworks for the city. Sixteenth-century maps make clear that when the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro was founded in 1565, the Portuguese well