With the changes that took place from the second half of the 19th century onward, the city grew both qualitatively and quantitatively. Between 1872 and 1890, the population nearly doubled, rising from 275 thousand to 523 thousand inhabitants. This densification, combined with epidemics and the inadequacy of urban services, heightened Rio de Janeiro's condition as a fever-ridden city. The subsequent housing crisis, worsened by increased migration and the successive emancipation of the enslaved population, led to a search for new ways of living that resulted in types of collective housing and radically altered the urban landscape, especially in the old city center.
Gradually, epidemics and population density led the elites to withdraw from downtown, leading to the occupation of abandoned homes by tenements, guesthouses, and boarding houses. The boarding houses met the demand from students and professionals who came to settle in the city, but they also served as places for prostitution - generally, "as polacas" managed by "madames" who used French names.
The boarding houses served a public that was starting to join the port workforce and were located close to the Saúde and Gamboa areas. The tenement houses, on the other hand, were concentrated in several areas, from Cidade Nova to the old downtown, and brought together families who came to the city looking for work as well as families of formerly enslaved people. In 1868, in the parish of Santana alone, there were more than 150; by 1884, in the same area, the number of tenement houses reached 392.
Image description: This is a historic black-and-white photograph. The image shows a panoramic view of a coastal city with many ships at sea. On the left side, there is a range of mountains covered with green vegetation. In the center, the sea is full of boats of different sizes. On the right, there are residential buildings close to the slope of a hill. At the base of the hill, there are several houses with tile roofs. On the right, a small building is located near the edge of the hill.View of Guanabara Bay from Morro do Castelo. Marc Ferrez, circa 1890. Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Instituto Moreira Salles.
The people who lived in these dwellings worked in both formal jobs -- such as workers in various factories -- and informal ones. Many worked in the streets as sellers of fresh meat, turkeys, flowers, and milk. Milk was sold door to door, and the drink was drawn on the spot from the cows and their calves that followed the sellers around. These activities, combined with the animals that pulled the streetcars, contributed to the city's foul smell and filth.
Image description: This is a historic photograph of a busy street, likely from the 19th century. The image shows a large building with classical architecture on the left, featuring several windows and a balcony on the upper floor. In front of this building, there is a shop with a white canvas awning hanging over it. The street is full of ox carts and people walking. In the background, a church tower with a visible dome can be seen. The image is in black and white.Rua 1° de Março (formerly rua Direita), circa 1890. Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Instituto Moreira Salles.
At the foot of Morro da Providência stood one of the city's most famous tenements, the "Cabeça de Porco" - in the parish of Sacramento - which existed for about 50 years. On the front gate, a pig's head wrought in iron adorned the entrance, an image that gave rise to the name and to the generic term used to designate Rio's tenements.
Almost a neighborhood in itself, the tenement had a long central corridor, two wings with more than a hundred small houses, and other "streets" with even more houses. The back of it faced what is now Morro da Providência, close to the Terminal Station of the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil. It looked like a large neighborhood, and it was suspected to belong to Conde D'Eu, husband of Princess Isabel, whose foreman ran the tenement.
From the mid-19th century onward, fear of the slave revolts that broke out in Brazil heightened concern over working-class housing. In line with hygienist discourse, the City Council created a series of regulations aimed at putting an end to estalagens (tenement inns), especially from the 1870s onward.
To speed up the mobility of traffic with the port, the businessman and engineer connected to civil construction (and future mayor of the city, 30 years later, in the 1920s), Carlos Sampaio, proposed, alongside his partner Vieira Souto, a project to build a tunnel that would cross the hill and ease imports and exports, but the Cabeça de Porco stood in the way, blocking the route. It was then that mayor Barata Ribeiro, who was waging a war against the tenements, decided to put an end to the Cabeça de Porco, devising a grand operation that mobilized the police and the army, as well as workers, for the demolition.
O Sr. Dr. Barata Ribeiro, digno prefeito, que não sabe o que são embaraços, quando se trata de cumprir a lei, e que, se continua n’este caminho, está destinado a prestar serviços inolvidáveis à nossa cidade, mandou há cinco dias intimidar os habitantes do cortiço a despejarem-n’o, a hontem, expirando o prazo, procedeu-se à demolição da estalagem
Gazeta de Notícias
. Rio de Janeiro. January 27, 1893. Nº 26. XIXth Year, p.1)
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people lived there. The demolition was treated as a great spectacle by the press and the population, who followed the action led by Barata Ribeiro. On the day of the demolition, on January 26, 1893, in front of number 154 Rua Barão de São Félix, a crowd of people watched the demolition.
When the walls began to crumble, the residents retreated, in deep despair, with what they could save. Some ended up setting up their shacks on the Providência hill, which would receive the soldiers returning from the Canudos War four years later, in 1897. As Sidney Chalhoub aptly points out in his book Cidade febril: "no sooner was the end of the tenement era announced than the city of Rio was already entering the century of favelas" (p. 20, 2017).
The next day, the drawing of a pig's head on a tray, being eaten by a cockroach, appeared printed in the newspapers.
Image description: The image is a black-and-white engraving. In the center, there is a pig's head on a plate, with subtle details of textures and shadows. Above, the title "Revista Ilustrada" appears in ornate lettering. Below the title, there is information about the price and place of publication. At the bottom of the image, there is a poem in Portuguese, with verses aligned to the left and right.Cover of Revista Ilustrada, no. 656, 1893. Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Digital Newspaper Library/National Library.
