Forte de São Lourenço (

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

: ''Fort of Saint Lawrence'') is a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

located in

Itaparica Itaparica is an island located at the entrance of Todos os Santos Bay on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the state of Bahia, Brazil. It is located about from the city of Salvador, Bahia and covers . There are two municipalities on the island: ...

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

in Brazil. It sits on a strategic point at the north of

Itaparica Island Itaparica is an island located at the entrance of Todos os Santos Bay on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the state of Bahia, Brazil. It is located about from the city of Salvador, Bahia and covers . There are two municipalities on the island ...

on a site used for whaling in the early 17th century. The Dutch constructed a small earthwork fortification on the site during the Dutch occupation of Brazil (1630–1654); it was reconstructed by the Portuguese in its present form in the early 18th century. The fort was used by Brazilian forces during the Brazilian struggle for independence in 1823; the

Brazilian Navy ) , colors= Blue and white , colors_label= Colors , march= "Cisne Branco" ( en, "White Swan") (same name as training ship ''Cisne Branco'' , mascot= , equipment= 1 multipurpose aircraft carrier7 submarines6 frigates2 corvettes4 amphibious warf ...

has owned the fort since the same year. The Forte de São Lourenço was listed as a federal historic structure in 1938.

History

João Francisco, a Portuguese whale fisherman, established a small whaling port at the north of

in 1624. The point was called Ponta da Baleia (English: ''Whale Point''). The point was occupied by the Dutch during their occupation of Brazil (1630–1654). The Dutch, under Siegsmundt Van Schkoppe, established a small earthwork fortification in 1647 at the Ponta da Baleia. The structure sat on a hill protecting the only natural port on the island. The Dutch named the fortification the Fort of the Eminence. It resisted an attack by Francisco Rebelo in October 1647. The Dutch destroyed the fortification when they retreated to Recife. , governor of Bahia, planned a reconstruction of the fort in 1704. Miguel Pereira da Costa, a military officer from Portugal, arrived in Brazil in 1710 and identified the northern point of Itaparica as a strategic location to protect the Bay of All Saints; the point protected both the Bay in general, and small boats from the Recôncavo region in the interior of Bahia that supplied Salvador with much of its trade. Pereira da Costa appealed to Lourenço de Almeida, governor, for funds to complete the fortification. The French invasion 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 b ...

in 1711 spurred the Portuguese to fund the project on the site of the Dutch fortification. Sancho de Faro, governor of Brazil, inspected the fort and its military works in 1719. It was again inspected in 1722 and described in subsequent reports, and again repaired in 1782. The Forte de São Lourenço played an important role in the Brazilian struggle for

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

. Barros Galvão, a Brazilian independence fighter, scaled the walls of the fort, now abandoned by the Portuguese, to search for any remaining weapons and to occupy the fort. Brazilian forces repelled attacks by the Portuguese on January 7, 1823. The fort subsequently became the property of the

. The fort was in ruin by 1859, as recorded during a visit by

Dom Pedro II Don (honorific), Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimity, Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the List of monarchs of Brazil, second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. ...

. Its cannons were useless by this point and the Command House was used as a public jail. The fort was rebuilt between 1862 and 1863 as part of the repair of forts across Brazil. It was transformed into a hospital in 1892.

Location

Forte de São Lourenço faces a broad beach on the north of the Island of Itaparica. Praça Getúlio Vargas sits to the right of the fort, and a small beach with leafy tamarind trees sits to the east of the fort. The fort is part of a architectural ensemble that includes the

Church of Saint Lawrence Church of Saint Lawrence is a historic Episcopal church located at Alexandria Bay in Jefferson County, New York. It was built in 1889 and is a three-by-four-bay wood-frame Shingle Style structure on a massive, raised stone foundation. It is c ...

, the

Parish Church of the Blessed Sacrament A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, and Town Hall of Itaparica.

Structure

The fort consists of walls of stone masonry with access via a tunnel and a ramp. It covers . The fort consists of two "irregular hornwork demi-bastions" of six protruding angles and two reentrant angles. The structure was built to defer both attacks by sea and from infantry attacks by land. The fort had a captain's residence, barracks, and prison. The former barracks and prison are covered by cradle vaults. The internal structures were modified or removed in 1970 by the Brazilian Navy. The fort was remodeled into a

degaussing Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating a remnant magnetic field. It is named after the gauss, a unit of magnetism, which in turn was named after Carl Friedrich Gauss. Due to magnetic hysteresis, it is generally not possible to redu ...

station by the Brazilian Navy between 1974 and 1975; the Command Houses was demolished and a U-shaped structure of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

housed a

station.

Protected status

The Forte de São Lourenço was listed as a historic structure by the

National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage The National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (, IPHAN) is a heritage register of the federal government of Brazil. It is responsible for the preservation of buildings, monuments, structures, objects and sites, as well as the register and ...

in 1938.

References

External links