ROYAL PRINCE OF BEIRA FORT, COSTA MARQUES, RONDÔNIA The Royal Prince of Beira Fort, also known as Prince of Beira Fortress, is located on the right bank of the Guaporé river, in present-day Guajará-Mirim, Costa Marques township, state of Rondônia in Brazil. Standing in dominant position in the border with Bolivia, this fortress is considered as one of the biggest ever to be built by Portuguese Millitary Engineering in colonial Brazil, a result of the political cunning of Sebastião José Carvalho de Melo, Marquis of Pombal who wished to establish well-defined boundaries with the Spanish crown in South America, after the treaties celebrated by the two powers between 1750 and 1777. |
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IMAGE COLLECTION Clarice Muhlbauer, 2010 (Flicker) Beto Bertagna, 2010 (Portal Luís Nassif) Sílvio Santos, 2008 (Panoramio) Rádio Televisão Portuguesa, 2008 (YouTube.com)
(Google Images) |
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
O Real Forte Príncipe da Beira, na margem direita do rio Guaporé, fronteira natural entre o Brasil e a Bolívia, é o mais antigo monumento histórico de Rondônia. Sua construção foi iniciada em 2 de junho de 1776 pelo engenheiro Domingos Samboceti, que faleceu de malária durante a obra; e concluída em 20 de agosto de 1783 pelo capitão engenheiro Ricardo Franco de Almeida e Serra. More... O Real Forte do Príncipe da Beira, também conhecido como Fortaleza do Príncipe da Beira, localiza-se na margem direita do rio Guaporé, atual Guajará-Mirim, no município de Costa Marques, estado de Rondônia, no Brasil. Em posição dominante na fronteira com a Bolívia, esta fortaleza é considerada uma das maiores edificadas pela Engenharia Militar portuguesa no Brasil Colonial, fruto da política pombalina de limites com a coroa espanhola na América do Sul, definida pelos tratados firmados entre as duas coroas entre 1750 e 1777. More… (…) Above all, the Fort of Príncipe da Beira may symbolize the illuminated dementia of boundless delusions. Yet if the Portuguese are capable, today as 900 years ago, of the best and the worst, then let us then choose this Fort as the embodiment of our capacity to excel: the ambition of becoming more, of going further taking any boundaries, of preferring what is splendid and mighty over the meager profitable and safe, of assuming the resolutely fearless and dauntless act of trivializing the impossible. More… (…) Spain agreed, moreover, to give up the settlements it owned on the right bank of the Guaporé (the Jesuit mission of Santa Rosa was once where the Principe da Beira fort is today), but in compensation kept the angle formed by the Amazon and Japurá rivers (where there was a Portuguese fort, prior to Tabatinga). The description of the borders gradually became more detailed, which may be perfectly followed by reading the detailed letters sent by Alexandre de Gusmão to the Portuguese negotiator in Madrid. The borders emerging from these letters are basically those figuring in the Treaty itself, the first version of which, differing little from the final text, was sent by Gusmão to Madrid at the end of 1748. More… (…)The last film site visited by Rondon is the Mato Grosso border. It is presented as inhospitable, but not unguarded, land: 147 years ago, during the times of diamonds and other precious stones, the Príncipe da Beira fort was erected. The images show an abandoned fortress; its external defense structure appears however to be intact. The inter-title remarks, as will be seen later, that the fort's internal facilities are in ruins. In order to show what the eyes cannot see, another inter-title explains that that was a Vauban-style fort, with four balustrades, fourteen embrasures each – showing not only its premier military engineering as its irreproachable firepower. The fact that it is in ruins seems to be no big deal, as an inter-title explains that the place had been hoed three months earlier, and can be used at anytime for defense. More… |
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