CabeçadePorco

On January 26, 1893, in front of No. 154 Rua Barão de São Félix, a large crowd gathered to watch the demolition of the Cabeça de Porco tenement.

Cabeça de Porco existed for around 50 years. Like the other tenements that proliferated through the streets of Rio in the 19th century, it served as housing for the poorer classes of the Court (free workers, freedmen and enslaved people), who, needing to look for work daily, chose to live in the city center – the place with the greatest demand for labor.

This demand encouraged speculators to build tenement houses – collective dwellings with cheaper rents and much more precarious conditions than existing houses. In the 1850s and 60s, these dwellings multiplied. In 1868, in the parish of Santana alone (where Cabeça de Porco was located), there were more than 150; by 1884, in the same region, the number of tenement houses reached 392.

Image description: This is a historical black-and-white photograph showing a densely populated urban area. From left to right, we see several houses with sloped roofs and regularly arranged windows. In the center, there is a taller, wider building with several windows and a light-colored façade. To the right, more small houses continue to occupy the space. In the background, other buildings and structures are visible, forming an old urban landscape.

Among all the tenements, the Cabeça de Porco came to be one of the most famous and populous: it is estimated that around 2,000 people lived there. On the front gate, a wrought-iron pig's head ornamented the entrance. Almost like a neighborhood, the tenement had a long central corridor, two wings with more than a hundred small houses, and other "streets" with more houses. The back opened onto what is now Morro da Providência.

Starting in the mid-19th century, fear of the slave revolts that broke out in Brazil heightened concern about working-class housing. In line with hygienist discourse, the City Council created a series of ordinances aimed at putting an end to the tenement houses, especially from the 1870s onward.

Cabeça de Porco held on, not without complaints, which made it into the press with arguments ranging from sanitary concerns to the old prejudice of race and class. However, in 1893, it was finally demolished. The demolition was treated as a great spectacle by the press and the population, who followed the action led by mayor Barata Ribeiro.

Image description: This is an old black-and-white photograph showing an urban scene. On the left side, we see an underground tunnel with people walking through it. On the right, there are several houses of different sizes and styles, some with sloped roofs. In the center, there is a building with a cross on top, possibly a church or temple. In the background, more houses extend to the horizon.

When the walls began to crumble, the residents beat a retreat, taking with them whatever they could salvage. Some ended up setting up their shacks on Morro da Providência.