part 1 - Iccrom

MEASURING HERITAGE CONSERVATION PERFORMANCE
6th International Seminar on Urban Conservation
We have to imagine that before the construction of
the Trapiche buildings and the covered mercado (end
of 19 th century), presumably the open market was
organized directly at the banks of the Rio Cotinguiba.
The western part of the now built-up site has been
used by a campus of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe
(UFS) for two years, while the mercado has been
in operation since its construction. At the eastern
part of the southern riverbank are some commercial
houses with one or two storeys, including a former
bakery (now under restoration) and another Trapiche
(a large hall structure, formerly for storing sugar,
etc.) restored for cultural events. At the south side of
the large and long square there are three important
buildings from the 19 th century: The Paço Municipal,
built for the visit of the emperor in 1860 and now
the city hall; the Casarão Rollemberg (now under
restoration); and at the west end the former Teatro
Santo Antônio, which, after some changes, is now
used as library for the UFS. The smaller buildings in
between with one or two storeys are used for shops,
bars, etc. The architecture of the buildings is mostly
neat and modest, stamped by flat thin façades with
many ribbon windows and doors. This gives a horizontal
character and makes a quiet background to
the architecture of the public buildings (see Figure
2) The marketplace consists of an addition of wide
short streets and larger squares all along the northern
city centre with a length of about 180 metres
and various widths between 10-25 metres, with a
maximum of 40 metres, in total about 8400 square
metres, including the mercado). Through the low
horizontal façades and the wide space the open blue
Figure 1. The market square within the historic town
centre, its different accesses and connections.
sky becomes a part of the urban character. The huge
square also offers various views up to the green hills
crowned by white chapels. Although in the middle
of today’s centre of Laranjeiras, the built sequence
of public spaces is accentuated by a strong environmental
impact from the surrounding landscape.
Figure 2. Bird’s-eye view of the market and the urban
space from the east to the west. [The planned marketsite
in the background; not visible: the University buildings
(Trapiche), the Mercado building (right) or the Rio
Continguiba.]
The pavement varies between the later, more comfortable,
granite stones (paralelepípedo) at both ends
of the place and the former pavement of limestone
flags in the middle (see Figure 3), called coração de
negro (‘heart of the negro’, following Valladares,
1983) or pé-de-moleque, ‘foot of an urchin’. The plain
is subdivided into regular parts by this type of pavement,
mostly by vertical inserted stone plates that
form direct lines all over the square. Many of these
lines are destroyed or nearly invisible. This pavement
is probably the first one in Laranjeiras, made
in the 19 th century. It characterizes the atmosphere of
some other old streets and lanes in the historic centre,
but because of its rough structure, variety of size,
state and soft consistency, it causes some problems
in present standards of use. 2 There are sidewalks
along the houses at the south and also at north along
the large Trapiche buildings. Since these buildings
are constructed on a higher level (probably against
flood disasters from the river) they have an inclined,
ramp-like apron. Rainwater is collected in deep and
roughly constructed and now sometimes destroyed
gutters and a few big drains. Maintained trees grow
at both ends along the street-like parts, protected by
low walls. Along with two isolated lampposts in the
middle in front of the mercado, public road lighting is
installed along the southern buildings on high posts
with lamps that send an over-bright yellow light in
Brendle, K. H. 2012. ¿Conservar uma feira livre? Or, preserving dynamic, complex heritage by accenting societal character and sociospatial
conceptualization. In Zancheti, S. M. & K. Similä, eds. Measuring heritage conservation performance, pp. 42-52. Rome, ICCROM.
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