Rio De Janeiro: walking tour

When Franciscans established this religious complex in colonial Rio de Janeiro, they placed it high up on the Morro de Santo Antônio, overlooking the growing city below. It served as a quiet retreat set apart on solid rock.

Then the twentieth century arrived, and engineers decided the entire hill was in the way of Rio's modern expansion. Over several decades, powerful hydraulic jets washed away millions of cubic meters of earth and rock, leveling the surrounding slopes and filling in the bay to build Flamengo Park. The Franciscan buildings, along with their stone portals and terraced approaches, were among the few structures spared.

When the machines finished their work, the landscape around the complex had dropped right out from beneath it. Stand here at the base and you see the result: the sanctuary never moved, but the hill that once carried an entire neighborhood was washed straight into the bay.