The Fortaleza de São João da Barra do Rio de Janeiro (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

for: Fortress of Saint John of the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro), popularly known as the Fortaleza de São João or Forte (de) São João (Fort (of) Saint John), is a 16th-century star fort in the present-day

Urca Urca is a traditional and wealthy residential neighborhood with nearly 7,000 inhabitants (2000 census) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although most of the neighborhood dates from the 1920s, parts of it are much older. What is now called the Forte Sã ...

neighborhood of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, erected by

Estácio de Sá Estácio de Sá (1520 – February 20, 1567) was a Portuguese soldier and officer. Sá travelled to the colony of Brazil on the orders of the Portuguese crown to wage war on the French colonists commanded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. These ...

to protect

Guanabara Bay Guanabara Bay ( pt, Baía de Guanabara, ) is an oceanic bay located in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lie the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói a ...

from French invasion.
Espaço Cultural: Fortaleza de São João, RJ

History

The original fort was built in 1565 under King

Sebastian of Portugal Sebastian ( pt, Sebastião I ; 20 January 1554 – 4 August 1578) was King of Portugal from 11 June 1557 to 4 August 1578 and the penultimate Portuguese monarch of the House of Aviz. He was the son of João Manuel, Prince of Portugal, and hi ...

. An expanded and improved structure was put into service in 1618, consisting of four batteries (São José, São Martinho, São Teodósio, and São Diogo). Its armaments were greatly reduced, and not manned, during Brazil's Regency period, but

Dom Pedro II Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Em ...

ordered the fort completely renovated in 1872, and it was equipped with a complement of guns, bunkers, and batteries, including fifteen Whitworth cannons. It was manned as a

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

installation until 1991. In 1930, the Brazilian Army's Centro Militar de Educação Física (created in 1922) was transferred to the Fortaleza de São João. This establishment was renamed in 1933 and continues to be based at the Fortaleza de São João, together with the directorate to which it is subordinated, the , since the latter's creation in 2002.

References

External links

Map of the Situation of the Three Main Fortresses on the Inlet Entrance of Rio de Janeiro...
is a map from 1764 including Fortaleza de São João and two other forts. Sao Joao Buildings and structures in Rio de Janeiro (city) Portuguese colonial architecture in Brazil {{Brazil-mil-stub