Patrimônio e paisagem em transformação: as cercas dos conventos franciscanos do Brasil e suas inserções nas cidades

Abstract

The contemporary issues of the world highlight the urgency of changing the way the fauna and flora reserves are created. In view of the established environmental crisis, which leads to the emergence of a new geological era called Anthropocene, characterized by the destruction caused by humans, this change is an urgent need. Considering this context, this thesis analyzes a group of heritage buildings which has great importance to the history of Brazil. It consists of 28 historic Franciscan friaries located in the Northeast and Southeast of the country, totally or partially listed as National or local heritage, due to their artistic and architectonic values, though they are also important for their “enclosures” (a large greenery surrounding the building). Originally, these enclosures played a crucial role in the self-maintenance of the friaries, providing food, water and building materials to the house, and were also a sacred and intimate area, where liturgical rituals could also take place. Currently, they stand out as green areas in the middle of densely occupied urban centers, such as the capitals Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, facing increasing threats due to urban demands for space, as they are not recognized as heritage areas that need to be preserved. This perspective shows an even wider issue: in contemporary times, the areas of fauna and flora are often regarded as resources to be exploited or as empty spaces to be occupied. In spite of their historical, landscape and ecological relevance, many of these enclosures are at risk of disappearing - seven of them do not exist anymore. Given this scenario, this thesis aims to characterize the Brazilian Franciscan enclosures producing a national overview about them, and also highlighting their individual particularities, with the goal of contributing to the recognition and preservation of these areas. The methodological approach was based on extensive fieldwork conducted in all 28 urban settlements located between the states of Paraíba and São Paulo, as well as on the work with the written and image primary sources, which has been collected by the Research Group Studies of Landscape for more than two decades. It is expected that the results and the discussions raised by this research will contribute to the development of strategies aiming to connect these green areas to the cultural life of the cities, focusing on the sustainable tourism and the respect for ancestral precepts, giving emphasis to their sacred atmosphere and housing elements, that are commonly neglected, although remain essential.