The history of Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, officially begins on March 26, 1772,A Cidade, Secretaria Municipal de Turismo when the primitive village was elevated to the condition of a parish. However, its origins are older, since the settlement was created as a result of the colonization of the area by Portuguese ranchers in the 17th century. The region, in fact, has been inhabited by man since 11,000 years ago. Throughout the 19th century, the settlement began to grow with the help of many European immigrants of various origins, African slaves, and portions of Hispanics from the River Plate region. At the beginning of the 20th century, Porto Alegre's expansion acquired a very accelerated rhythm, consolidating its supremacy among all the cities in Rio Grande do Sul and projecting it on the national scene. From then on, its most characteristic traits, only sketched out in the previous century, were defined; many still remain visible today, especially in its historic center. Throughout the entire 20th century, the city strove to expand its urban network in an organized way and provide it with the necessary services, achieving significant success, but also facing various difficulties, at the same time as it developed its own expressive culture, which, at some moments, influenced other regions of Brazil in many fields, from politics to the plastic arts.Costa, Eimar Bones da (ed). História Ilustrada do Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre: Já Editores, 1998Macedo, Francisco Riopardense de. Porto Alegre: Origem e Crescimento. Porto Alegre: Prefeitura Municipal, 1999 Today, Porto Alegre is one of Brazil's largest capitals and one of the richest and one with the best quality of life,IBGE. População residente, em 1º de abril de 2007 having received several international distinctions. It hosts many important events and has been pointed out several times as a model of administration for other large cities.Ludwig, Fernando. Em busca de outras democracias: a democracia participativa de Porto Alegre. Revista Autor, Mai-2009
Beginning of colonization
At the time of the Discovery, the region where Porto Alegre is located was inhabited by the Guaraní, Charruas, Minuano and Tapes indigenous groups. With the establishment of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 and the subsequent discovery of Brazil in 1500, the region up to Laguna, in Santa Catarina, remained under Portuguese domination, while Rio Grande do Sul was under Spanish domination.
However, with the Iberian Union, which lasted from 1580 to 1640, these boundaries became meaningless. Since there was little interest from the metropolis in these lands, several Portuguese explorers began to settle spontaneously near the coast. When Portugal restored its independence from the Kingdom of Spain in 1640, there were already many estancias in the region, especially north of the Ducks' Lagoon and near the mouth of the Jacuí River. In 1680, the Portuguese founded Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, today the city of Colônia, and the coast of Rio Grande do Sul began to be traveled intensively as a route to supply the colony and to guarantee possession of the territory.
In 1732, Manoel Gonçalves Ribeiro, a native of Laguna, received a sesmaria in the area known as Campos de Viamão, where the formation of a settlement called Capela Grande do Viamão began, which would become the second capital of the state. Other colonizers who received land in the region were Sebastião Francisco Chaves, Dionisyo Rodrigues Mendes and Jerônimo de Ornelas, owner of the sesmaria of Sant'Anna, the most important, located on the current Sant'Anna Hill, in a lot he already occupied since 1732 with his residence and a ranch for raising cattle. Near the old mouth of the Diluvio stream there was already an anchorage called Port of Viamão, which also became known as Port of Dornelles.
In 1742, the king of Portugal, at the request of Brigadier José da Silva Pais, published an order authorizing the emigration of Azoreans to southern Brazil, who were initially to settle in the region of Santa Catarina. On December 7, 1744, Jerônimo de Ornelas received, by Royal Letters, the confirmation of possession of the lands already occupied and intensified his cattle breeding. With the headquarters located on Sant'Anna Hill, the rest of their property was just uninhabited countryside, with the exception of a few families living on the shores of the lake formed by the Guaíba River, at the tip of the peninsula, where the historic center of Porto Alegre is today. There, they built a tiny chapel, consecrated to Saint Francis of the Wounds, which was elevated to a curate in 1747.
In 1750, after the signing of the Treaty of Madrid, the governor of Santa Catarina, Manoel Escudeiro de Souza, was ordered to send a group of couples that were about to arrive from the Azores to the Port of Viamão. In 1751, 60 families were selected, making a total of about 300 people who arrived at the site in January 1752, being sent to lands already demarcated on Sant'Anna Hill. However, the site was poor in water sources, being abandoned later, leading the population to settle near the port that, for this reason, became known as the Port of Couples. In the same year, a new wave of Azoreans arrived, joining some 60 militiamen from Colonel Cristóvão Pereira de Abreu's detachment, who were sent to provide protection and assistance to the inhabitants. Along with the troops came the first religious, Friar Faustino Antônio de Santo Alberto, a Carmelite military chaplain. Also in 1752, Jerônimo de Ornelas, feeling harmed by the Azorean occupation of the tip of the peninsula, sold his land to Ignácio Francisco, although the letter of confirmation of his sesmaria contained the obligation to leave half a league from the lake towards the interior as an area of public use. The area was then expropriated and legally made available to the settlers already installed, but the actual sharing and delivery of the individual rural lots would only happen in 1772. The first site built was the cemetery, on the edge of the Guaíba River and near the Harmonia Square, which was later transferred to the Morro da Praia, today known as Praça da Matriz (English: Mother Church Square).
Creation of the parish
With the passage of control of the then capital of the captaincy, the village of Rio Grande, to Spanish rule in 1763, the government was transferred to Viamão and a large part of the population of Rio Grande took refuge in the Port of Couples, extending the inhabited area. On March 26, 1772, the official date of Porto Alegre's foundation, this primitive settlement was elevated to a parish under the name of São Francisco do Porto dos Casais, because the town's first chapel was dedicated to Saint Francis of the Wounds. Still in 1772, the settlers received the titles to their lots, with a quadrilateral of about 141 hectares dedicated to the formation of the urban nucleus, occupying the entire area of the peninsula. Its initial layout was made by cartographer Captain Alexandre José Montanha, in the expropriated region of the Sant'Anna sesmaria, but the original tracing has never been found. To keep up with the population growth and in recognition of the strategic importance of the port, Governor Marcelino de Figueiredo moved the capital again in 1773, from Viamão to Porto Alegre, which was then known as Freguesia da Nossa Senhora da Madre de Deus de Porto Alegre. According to Sebastião da Câmara, the change of the capital had been ordered by the then viceroy of Brazil, the Marquis of Lavradio.Câmara, Sebastião da. Carta ao Vice-Rei Luiz de Vasconcelos e Souza, de 22 de dezembro de 1780. In: Noal Filho, Valter Antonio & Franco, Sérgio da Costa. Os viajantes olham Porto Alegre: 1754/1890. Santa Maria: Anaterra, 2004, p. 22
Therefore, it begins the reorganization of the settlement as the capital of the Province. In 1774, the War Arsenal, the first Mother Church and the Governor's Palace were built, and four years later fortifications were erected on the perimeter opposite the lake. In the following two decades there were already several potteries in activity, indicating a growing demand for construction materials such as tiles, floors, and bricks; shipyards were already building ships to order for Rio de Janeiro, commerce was being structured, and city councilors were concerned with the beautification and cleanliness of streets and public places. Some of Porto Alegre's oldest squares, such as the XV de Novembro Square, the Mother Church Square, and the Alfândega Square, which still exists, were also beginning to take shape. In the cultural field, the first opera house was built in 1794, even though it was only a rudimentary wooden shed, at the Ferreiros Alley. In the surroundings, the settlers were involved in agriculture and various animal husbandry activities for the sustenance of the citizens, with emphasis on the production of wheat and flour. The owner of one of the most important mills of the time, Francisco Antônio da Silveira, known as Chico da Azenha, ended up lending his nickname to the entire neighborhood, Azenha, proving the importance of this agricultural activity. Other mills marked the memory of the people of Porto Alegre, which led to the creation of a neighborhood called Moinhos de Vento. The charqueadas also settled in the suburbs of the city, attracted by the urban growth. As these small industries proliferated in their surroundings, the houses that would give rise to some of the neighborhoods farther from the center, such as Cristal and Tristeza, began to cluster. At the end of the 18th century, Porto Alegre had almost 4 thousand inhabitants.
19th Century The charter of August 27, 1808 and the Royal Resolution of October 7, 1809 elevated the parish to the category of village, establishing it on December 11, 1810. Through a charter of December 16, 1812, Porto Alegre became the seat of the newly created Captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande, and head of the comarca of São Pedro do Rio Grande e Santa Catarina. In 1814, the new governor, Dom Diogo de Souza, obtained the granting of a large sesmaria in the north, with the purpose of stimulating local agriculture. Due to the growth of nearby cities such as Rio Pardo and Santo Antônio da Patrulha and in view of its privileged geographical situation, at the confluence of the two largest internal navigation routes - the Jacuí River and the Ducks' Lagoon - Porto Alegre began to become the largest commercial center in the Province. The permanent fleet that attended the port at that time consisted of about 100 ships, requiring the construction of a large pier on the lake for berthing and the opening of customs. Exports of wheat and dried beef also began. In 1816, 400 alqueires of wheat were traded to Lisbon and, in 1818, more than 120 thousand arrobas of dried beef were sold, a product that would soon take the lead in the Province's economy.