Praça da República, Belém

Praça da República is located in the city of Belém, Brazil.

In the beginning it was the Largo da Campina, a huge piece of open land between the Campina neighborhood and the road that led to the hermitage of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré. Later, in the 18th century, a huge warehouse was built there to store gunpowder, changing its name to Gunpowder Square. A gallows was erected, but there is no record of any hanging. What is known is that the space was used to bury slaves and the poor in shallow graves.

In honor of the emperor, they named it Pedro II, but it was still a large piece of open land. In 1850, they even planted some trees, but in a disorganized way. With the inauguration of the Theatro da Paz, in 1878, there was urbanization, also modest. Its definitive name came with the change of regime: "Republic Square".

Governor Justo Chermont envisioned the construction of a monument in honor of the republic in 1889. The cornerstone was laid the following year, but it was a contest that decided the shape of the monument. The winner was Michele Sebastiano.

Inaugurated on November 15, 1897, and all in carrara marble, the Monument is 20 meters high. The statue is of a woman, representing the democratic regime, with an olive branch in her hand, symbolizing peace. The winged genie, on the first step of the work supported by a lion, raises the banner of the republic shouting: "Freedom!". Symbolically, it is the national progress supported on the strength of the new regime that raises Freedom.

On the other side of the step, History, sitting on several books, records, on a blank sheet of a large volume, the date of the proclamation of the republic. Two little geniuses hold up the shields of "Probity" and "Union". The four plaques in honor of Floriano Peixoto, José Bonifácio, Tiradentes, and Beijamim Constant were attached to the monument during Abelardo Conduru's second administration.

The first attempt at urbanizing the square was in 1801, with the intendant of Belém, Arthur Índio do Brasil. He paved its avenues, paved the sidewalks, placed fountains and benches and landscaped the boulevards.

However, it was Antônio Lemos, in 1897, who made the Praça da República worthy of the title "beautiful. Lemos made serious criticism of the urban design of the square in his report to the city council. He called the landscaping of the place "a cripple of the art of floristry with flowerbeds more than a meter high, lined up perpendicularly, with fatiguing symmetry, which irritated the calmest passerby. He completely changed the appearance of the place, even changing the paving of the streets that bordered the square for cobblestones.

During the government of Virgínio Mendonça, two pavilions were built in the square, the larger one today is the Waldemar Henrique Theater; the smaller one houses the Art School of the Federal University of Pará.

Today Praça da República becomes the ideal stage for major celebrations such as the Círio de Nazaré, the Day of the Race, and the September 7th parade. On the other 362 days of the year, it is the ideal place to hang out with the family, do evangelism, meet friends, or date.