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Pernambuco Northeast Region |
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Frustrated at not having found in Brazil the
precious metals which the Spanish had torn from more civilized peoples in
the part of the Americas assigned to them by the Treaty of Tordesillas,
the only alternative for the Portuguese was the growing of cane and the
production of sugar in order to make economically viable the
The wealth of the Brazilian North East had soon
stirred the envy of others, particularly the Dutch who
Olinda ceased to compete with Recife and thus preserved its original features until the twentieth century, when it came to be considered as a dormitory town. In 1937, when it was officially declared an Historic City, its main attractions were still its unique design, its houses with narrow facades and long, tree-lined gardens, and the high artistic quality of some of its buildings, which stood proudly among the exuberant tropical vegetation. International recognition of the aesthetic value of Olinda dates from 1982, when it was classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
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colonization
of their recently discovered virgin territories. During the colonial
period most of the sugar mills were concentrated in the North East region
of Brazil, where in 1535, in the captaincy of Pernambuco, the town of
Olinda was founded and quickly became a shop window for the accumulated
wealth of the neighboring sugar plantation owners. With its irregular
outline, its great buildings
erected on the top of hills with their view towards an emerald sea, and
the smaller houses winding round the lower slopes, Olinda is a magnificent
example of an informally created town, typical of Portuguese colonization
in Brazil. The name itself is said to have originated in the exclamation
of the hereditary captain Duarte Coelho, on gazing at the magnificent
vista which unfolded before him from the spot he had chosen for the
foundation of the town.
invaded Pernambuco
in 1630 and captured Olinda in the same year. But from the strategic point
of view of the Dutch the town was not easily defensible, and they soon
burned and abandoned it, preferring to settle in the neighboring marshes
around the hamlet of Recife, which they proceeded to drain in the way they
were accustomed to in Holland. There followed a period of extraordinary
development in less than two decades. With the expulsion of the Dutch in 1654, Olinda
was only gradually reconstructed, because it had already begun to suffer
increasing competition from Recife, which had established itself as an
important commercial center and would soon be promoted to administrative
capital of the Captaincy. What Olinda lost in terms of government
buildings was more than made up for by the construction of the monumental
monasteries and convents of the religious orders. Carmelites, Franciscans,
Benedictines and Jesuits occupied the heights of the city and produced,
especially in the interior of the convent buildings, the purest examples
of baroque art in colonial Brazil.
