Ouro Preto : da cidade-memória à cidade-monumento (1897-1937)

Abstract

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ouro Preto became one of the main symbols of the newly established Brazilian Republic. Initially, it was raised to the condition of city-memory of Minas Gerais state´s identity, as well as to the status of the birthplace of Republican struggle, and later, in the 1930s, to the category of the nation's city-monument. Researches which address either partially or fully the passage of the city memory into the monument-city condition emphasized the historicity that marks out such identity reconstruction. The thesis developed here wants to contribute to this debate from the analysis of three new issues: the economic situation of Ouro Preto after the transfer of the seat of state government to Belo Horizonte; the contexts of mobilization resulting from the sense of loss caused by that change; and finally the appropriation of the preservationist speech by Ouro Preto Municipal Administration. We believe that the study of these issues broadens the horizon of discussion produced to date, in order to shed light on the influence of the local reality on the process of transformation of the memory-city into the monument-city condition.