A Ilhéus do cacau : produção edilícia e paisagística entre as décadas de 1890 e 1940

Abstract

This research focuses on analyzing the architectural and landscape production of the city of Ilhéus between the 1890s and 1940s, aiming to understand the transformations that occurred over time in the central area of the city, within the context of the cocoa economy in southern Bahia. The study specifically centers on emblematic buildings and garden squares located in downtown Ilhéus (with the exception of the Instituto Nossa Senhora da Piedade, situated in Alto das Quintas). The buildings correspond to: Catedral de São Sebastião, bar Vesúvio, cabaré Bataclan, Cine Teatro Ilhéos, Ilhéos Hotel, Palácio Paranaguá, Grupo Escolar General Osório, and Instituto Nossa Senhora da Piedade. The garden squares include: Castro Alves Square, Ruy Barbosa Square, Coronel Pessôa Square, JJ Seabra Square, Luiz Vianna Square, and Barão do Rio Branco Square. Documentary sources, such as newspaper headlines and historical photographs, as well as oral accounts, and historiographic literature on Ilhéus and the subjects approached in this dissertation were fundamental in reconstructing the proces ses of construction and transformation of this materially and symbolically significant urban corean area imbued with memory, history, and culture, whose physical fabric has increasingly been subject to loss and mischaracterization, thus demanding more focused scholarly attention. This research seeks to reveal and analyze the architectural and landscape features of this portion of the city, interpreted considering its cultural, social, economic, and political contexts, which expressed the aspirations and contradictions of a rising cocoa elite.