ConventofSantoAntônio

The first friars of the Order of the Franciscans landed in Rio in 1592 and established their 1st residence at the foot of the extinct Morro do Castelo, until receiving the donation of the land on Morro de Santo Antônio (so named because it had a small chapel dedicated to the Saint) where they built the Convent.

The cornerstone was laid on 6/4/1608, and in 1615, the first mass was held. In the 1750s, major renovations were carried out to expand its capacity, and the convent took on the configuration it has today. Several friars from the Convent were prominent figures. Friar Vicente do Salvador, for example, was the author of the 1st document of Brazilian historiography, História do Brasil (1627). The manuscript was found by Capistrano de Abreu at the National Library in 1881, two and a half centuries after it was written, and was published in 1888. Friar Sampaio, in turn, was the author of the Manifesto do Rio de Janeiro, a text that requested that D. Pedro remain in Brazil and that was handed to the prince on 1/9/1822, the date on which Dom Pedro pronounced the famous "Fico." The friar was also a political mentor to D. Pedro I, and it is said that, in his cell, numerous plans in favor of independence took place.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a convent. On the left side, there is a main entrance with a stone staircase. On the right, the main building has three large doors, each with a window above it. The roof is flat and has two wooden crosses. Above the roof, there is a bell and a tower with three openings. The sky is cloudy, with dense, thick clouds.

In the intellectual field, notable is the library, which by the mid-18th century held 5,000 titles. It is still quite rich, but the titles dating from before 1900 were transferred to the Universidade São Francisco, in Bragança Paulista. It was also at the end of the 18th century that a university operated in what is now the Confession Hall, until 1820.

After the end of the Revolta da Armada (1891-94), the Santo Antônio hill began to be occupied by shacks that served as lodging for soldiers, and later by civilians, becoming one of Rio's first favelas. Under the justification of the city's need for road restructuring, the residents of the Santo Antônio favela suffered eviction actions and some "mysterious" fires, until a large part of the hill was torn down in the late 1950s. The Aterro do Flamengo was built with its soil. Today it houses only the Convent, the Igreja de Santo Antônio, and the chapel.

Image description: This is a photograph of the Convento de Santo Antônio. The image shows a religious building with a light-colored, detailed façade. On the left side, there is a tower with three bells and a small roof. On the right, the main building has two large doors and rectangular windows. The sky is cloudy, giving the image a gray tone.