Porto, água e vida: paisagem, sensorialidades e transformações de uma Zona Portuária Amazônica (Cidade Velha, Belém, Pará)

Abstract

The Amazon region has a complex system of river sand waters. In the state capital of Pará, 14 river basins are connected by 85 channels. Residents of the riverside in Belém are considered urban waterfront residents, categorized as informal settlements in need of urban policies to acquire dignity and quality of life. In the city's management history, where 40% of residents live in lowland areas, their way of life is associatedwith crime, enduring environmental vulnerability, allegedly with no architectural significance or cultural value; in contrast, the State plans these places by the river for recreation, to tourism and contemplation consumptions. This research aims to demonstrate that the landscape is one significant way for human relationship with the world, as unraveling the study of the old portuary area of the Cidade Velha neighborhood, located around the Porto do Sal Market and Carmo Church, and its communities Beco do Carmo, Beiradão, Menino Jesus, Porto do Sal and Palmeira; memories and evidence of the Port Beiradão, Port São Jorge, Port of Sal, Port Paysandu, Port Vasconcelos, Port of Alan, Port Brilhante and Port Palmeira. Landscape that is built of manipulation sand transformations of the physical environment, through the experience of affection, memory and body experience, a personal and group identity that creates layers of archaeological record. The objective of this research was understanding forms of organization, adaptation and sociability in the old portuary area of the Cidade Velha, having as analytical focus the human material production and landscape transformations. The Port of Sal was registered as one of the oldest ports in Belém. Its history is linked to the colony's first shipyard, and its life to the interior products, factories and trades. Twice the Porto f Sal was intended to be Belém's main port, but it eventually declined with the opening of roads and over the years, over 1.000 families, with creativity and social technologies, became residents of the waterfront and the structures of its old ports, milestones of what I have called “beirabilidade”, which invite us to rethink its landscape, material culture, powers and intelligibilities.