Escavando a história: um estudo do Forte Maurício no contexto da Arquitetura Militar do século XVII

Abstract

Penedo is one of the cities in the state of Alagoas that better shows in their urban landscape a richness of buildings showing the various historical periods of which this city has passed thru. However, not all memories are materialized in the landscape; some of them are simply noticed through signs or the absence and in the silence beneath the city layers. This is the case with the Mauricio fort which was one of the most important fortress constructions in the state of Alagoas. Built in the mid 17th century by order of Mauricio de Nassau, its shape and amplitude demonstrates the strategic importance of the village of Sao Francisco for the defense and maintenance of the Dutch Brazil. The fort doesn’t exist anymore; however, there are a lot of images – blueprints and views –representing its existence and its insertion in the village. Being the Dutch iconography the best reference that allow us access to the fort, this dissertation has as its objective to reconstruct , through the images, the component structures of the Mauricio Fort and make considerations regarding its operation inside a fortress system which aimed to guarantee the presence of the Dutch in the northeast region. For such, it was made a study about the changes of the defense system from the medieval to the modern times. In addition it was researched the way the fortresses were constructed in the northeast region of Brazil between the 16th and 17th century. It was also given particularly importance to analyze the images of the Mauricio fort taking into consideration reports of that time and the understanding of its structure with the aid of the fortification treaties from the 16th to 18th century. This analysis resulted in the infographic construction which aims to explain and decode the images, providing visibility of the results from the investigation. This study appeals not only to the archeological initiatives but also to the rescue of the fort evidence materials as to the increase of the culture of the state of Alagoas, and subsidize the reinforcement actions and maintenance of the fort memory.