| THE ISOLATION PARATY |
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| The pathways which cross over the "Serra do Mar" needed constant maintenance |
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| The problem of passage cities which depends exclusively of trade is that its prosperity is affected by a simple change of the route of people or goods. |
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| Two great strokes led to the city breakdown. The first one was the opening of the D.Pedro II railroad in 1870, connecting the "Vale do Paraíba" to Rio de Janeiro, becoming faster, safer and cheaper the coffee transportation by railroad than by sea-terrestrial transportation by Paraty. |
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| The second stroke was the enactment of Áurea Law in 1888 abolishing the slavery.Paraty depended a lot of the slave workforce whether for sugar or coffee agriculture or for mills and distillery (aguardente) or constant maintenance of the pathway which crossed the mountain, or for the cleaning of branches and trees that fell down in the rivers and dammed the water. |
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| Between 1870 and 1900 tried to keep the trade of goods still produced in the city (bananas, flour,"cachaça", heart of palm, coffee, beans) with the "Vale do Paraíba". However, without due maintenance, the pathway by mountain became inaccessible. |
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| After 1900 occurred a great urban drift, especially of men in search of work in the surrounding cities. The commercial establishments closed down and became residences. There were a lot of houses and most of them collapsed due to lack of maintenance. Within the 150 distilleries which produced "aguardente" only some of them were left. |
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| The access to Paraty, for people and goods, was done by the riverboats "Presidente" and "Nacional who departed from Rio de Janeiro. In 1925, The "santa Casa" was closed due to lack of resources and it there wasn't any doctor or dentist in the city. According to local dwellers, among 12.000 existing inhabitants in 1880 (10.000 free and 2000 slaves), only 600 were left among women, old people and children. |
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| The geographical isolation helped the preservation of Paraty traditions. |
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| The geographical isolation allowed Paraty to keep its characteristics not only architectural checked by its historical center, but also cultural, checked by the religious procession, typical culinary, domestic medicine using herbs and in the canoes production, baskets, mantle, fishing net and so on. |
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| In 1928, the President of Republic of Brazil Washingtron Luis visits the city. Thereon, in 1937 Paraty is registered as a historic landmark by the Historical and Artistic National Heritage Service by the Decree-law nº 25 with the objective of protecting the architectural and cultural heritage. In 1945, it becomes the Historical Monument of the Rio de Janeiro State by the Decree-law nº 1450. |
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| In 1450, the Municipal Decree nº 51 declares the city Historical Monument and in 1966 it becomes National Historical Monument by the Decree nº 59077. Despite of the legislation protecting the cultural assets of the city, but most of the historical registration was lost during the military regimen when the city intervener burned a great amount of documents he thought was useless. Nowadays, the city is working to be recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. |
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