TERRITÓRIOS E PAISAGENS BENEDITINAS NO RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as Portugal and Spain expanded their political domains through maritime expansion, the thousand-year-old Benedictine order took on new life with the creation of the Benedictine congregations of Valladolid, Spain, and that of the black monks of Portugal. This second was built in the 1560s, through the restoration of the Lusitanian monasteries, coordinated by Fray Pedro de Chaves and Fray Plácido de Vilalobos, of the Catalan abbey of Monserrate, belonging to the Congregation of Valladolid. After the third session of the Council of Trent, Philip II initiated the reform of the religious orders in Valladolid, then went to Monserrate, Escorial and Madrid. The arrival of the Benedictines in Brazil, as well as that of the Franciscans and Carmelites, coincided with the period known as the Iberian Union or Philippine government. In the territorial expansion of the Iberian Peninsula overseas, religious orders functioned as promoters of the civilizing process in Latin America under the domination of Catholicism. Thus, the first Benedictine monastery founded outside Europe was in Salvador, Bahia, in the early years of the 1589s. From Bahia, the Benedictines moved to Olinda, in Pernambuco, and to the capitals of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Paraiba. In Rio de Janeiro, the Benedictines settled around 1590, initially in a rammed earth building, in what was then the Morro da Conceição. The works of the definitive Monastery began with the church in 1633, under the direction of Fray Leandro de São Bento, then passed in charge of Fray Bernardo de São Bento. Once object and space have been delimited, the purpose of this article is to analyze their dimensions as cultural heritage from the place and landscape in which they are inserted, the history and associated narratives, the documentation related to the monument and order, as well as the works of art, design, scholarly references contained therein,  the references of the artisans -of vernacular and not so erudite knowledge-, of the economy, of society and of other relevant factors, as well as of the intangible heritage -above all, the Gregorian chant, the discipline of the order and the formation of the religious and the education that they give to the local youth. By way of conclusion, the text presents the importance of the Benedictine ensemble of Rio de Janeiro in the convergence of the different patrimonial dimensions of art and landscape in the monastic building inserted in Brazilian culture. As a final objective, the article aims to underline the importance of the Iberian union in the formation of the aforementioned artistic and landscape heritage, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and advancing as integral heritage, of great richness and diversity throughout the following centuries.