The first maps were made by the Greeks and the Arabs and were important tools in exploratory expeditions to discover new continents around the world. For a long time they were the subject of knowledge, power, and disputes in the cycle of the great navigations of the 15th century. The oldest in Brazil correspond to the period of the arrival of European expeditions and were used as a tool for the knowledge and disputes of the ancestral territories of the indigenous tribes by the French, Portuguese, and Dutch.

The section defined in this exhibition demonstrates the cartography prepared in different periods between the 15th and 20th centuries, the first period of knowledge of the territory, the rivers, the indigenous villages, the seas and sandbanks characteristic of the coast of Maranhão, followed by the time of urban maps with the layout of the town devised by the Portuguese, with the definition of the planning of streets and blocks and the location of the churches and convents and fortresses, and finally the time of the maps of the end of the colony and the beginning of the 20th century republic, with the process of urban expansion of the city.

Among the numerous existing copies in the cartography of Maranhão, we highlight the Dutch map from 1641-44 from the book by Gaspar von Barleus and the Italian engraving by Andrea Orazi, from 1648, both originals can be found in the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. The Gaspar Barleus map represents the first records of our territory, which includes the urban layout left by the Portuguese chief engineer, Francisco Frias de Mesquita. In it, we see a citadel inside the walls, with the first official buildings: churches, the fort and command house of the territory -in the same place where the Palace of the Lions is located today-, the port and some geographical limits. Andrea Orazi’s engraving represents the Dutch occupation, with ships anchored from the tip of the sand to Praia Grande. It shows the city in its beginnings, with a church and small houses on top of the promontory, now Pedro II Square.

Other maps in this exhibition record the expansion of the city in subsequent years, such as the one in 1950, which shows a city of 150,000 inhabitants, still circumscribed to the center, but with the inclusion of new avenues such as Magalhães de Almeida, and Getúlio Vargas, and also the Caratatiua, São Francisco, Bandeira Tribuzi and Bacanga bridges.

In times of Google Earth, which expanded the visualization and notions of the world with the click of a cell phone, having access to the cartography of Maranhão in this exhibition is a delight for the eyes and the understanding of the difficulties faced by travelers in remote times, in addition to aggregating extremely useful information for scholars and the community in general. Some beautiful examples based on paths that constitute a poetic record of reality seen and idealized, without the rigour of mathematical data and Cartesian plans, stand out.

Grete Pflueger and Rosilan Garrido

18th century

Maps of the Urban Apogee

Nineteenth century

Twentieth-century

Urban expansion processes

Twentieth-century

Alcantara Urban Development Timeline

15th Century – Tapuitapera and Cumã Indigenous Villages

17th Century – Catechesis and Possession

1648 – Foundation of the Portuguese religious village of Santo Antônio de Alcántara

18th Century – Urban and Economic Apogee

1755 – Alcântara headquarters of Companhia Grão-Pará do Maranhão’s rural agro-cotton agro-exporting aristocracy, built by enslaved African peoples

18th to 20th Century – Economic Decline

1890 – 1950 – Decline

1948 – 1950 – Vargas Era – Vitorinism

1948 – State Prison in Alcántara – Exclusion

1950 – Listing of Alcantara by IPHAN

1965 – It was Sarney

1970 – Preservation plan of the architects Pedro and Dora Alcântara – IPHAN/RJ and the Unesco Mission

São Luís Urban Development Timeline

17th century

1612 – French “Foundation” of Saint Louis

1615-1618 – Portuguese urbanization of São Luís

1641-1644 – Dutch invasion

18th Century – Urban and Economic Apogee

1755 – Companhia Grão-Pará-Maranhão cotton exporter – Portuguese-Brazilian architectural complex built with the labor force of the African people

Nineteenth Century – Economic Decline

1890 – Abolition of slavery and changes in the cotton market.

1900 – Attempted industrialization – Fabric Factories

Twentieth-century

1936 – Otacílio Saboya Ribeiro’s beautification plan

1940 – Vargas Era – Hope in Babaçu and urban renewal in the center – São Luís – 120 thousand inhabitants

1958 – Ruy Mesquita’s expansion plan

1974 – IPHAN registration

1977 – Haroldo Tavares and Wit Olaf Prochnik’s expansion plan

1997 – Registration of the Historic Center by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site – São Luís – 1,200.00 inhabitants

21st century

2023 – Challenges of urban expansion and preservation of tangible and intangible heritage

URBAN CARTOGRAPHIES OF MARANHÃO

Curatorship

Grete Pflueger

Rosilan Garrido

Map Search

Larissa Machado

Artistic Coordination

Deyla Rabelo

Gabriel Gutierrez

Expography

Gabriel Gutierrez

Raimundo Tavares

Lighting

Calu Zabel

Visual Communication

Fábio Prata, Flávia Nalon (PS.2)

Production

Nat Maciel

Pablo Adriano

Samara Regina

Mounting

Diones Caldas

Fábio Nunes Pereira

Rafael Vasconcelos

Renan José

Impressions

Daniel Renault (Giclé Fine Art Print)

CENOTECHNICS

Pintura

Gilvan Brito

Woodworking

Dyoene Fração Ribeiro

Edson Diniz Moraes

Nerilton Fontoura Barbosa

Production

Nat Maciel

Pablo Adriano

Samara Regina

Mounting

Diones Caldas

Fábio Nunes Pereira

Rafael Vasconcelos

Renan José

Impressions

Daniel Renault (Giclé Fine Art Print)

CENOTECHNICS

Pintura

Gilvan Brito

Woodworking

Dyoene Fração Ribeiro

Edson Diniz Moraes

Nerilton Fontoura Barbosa

President

Eduardo Bartolomeo

Executive Vice President of Sustainability

Maria Luiza de Oliveira Pinto e Paiva

Strategic Council

Maria Luiza de Oliveira Pinto e Paiva (president)

Flávia Constant (vice-president)

Hugo Barreto

Octávio Bulcano

Executive Board

Hugo Barreto (CEO)

Luciana Gondim (Director)

Gisela Rosa (Director)

Sponsorships and Projects

Marize Mattos (Coordinator)

Direction
Gabriel Gutierrez
Steering Assistance
Deyla Rabelo

Coordination of the Educational Program
Ubiratã Trindade

Educators
Alcenilton Reis Junior

Amanda Everton

Maeleide Moraes Lopes

Educational Program Interns
Carlos Carvalho

Iago Aires

Jayde Reis

Lyssia Santos

Communication Coordination
Edízio Moura

Design

Ana Waléria

Production Coordination
Nat Maciel

Producers
Pablo Adriano Silva Santos

Samara Regina

Financial Coordination
Ana Beatris Silva (In Account)

Financial
Tayane Inojosa

Administrative
Ana Célia Freitas Santos

Reception
Adiel Lopes

Jaqueline Ponçadilha

Janitorial
Fábio Rabelo

Kaciane Costa Marques

Luzineth Nascimento Rodrigues

Maintenance
Yves Motta (general supervision)

Gilvan Britto

Jozenilson Leal

Safety
Charles Rodrigues

Izaías Souza Silva

Raimundo Bastos

Raimundo Vilaça