Lazaretto
Preta beach belonged to a Dutchman who had his farmhouse on the site when in 1884 his house was sold to the Portuguese empire, where it was turned into a quarantine hospital sheltering immigrants who came from countries where there were outbreaks of contagious diseases, especially cholera.
At that time, more precisely in 1893, the Aqueduct was built, a construction made to bring water to the Lazaretto. The construction was done by the slaves, with whale oil and stones, there was also built a dam that until the present day serves as a supply for the village of Abraão. The ruins of the Aqueduct can still be visited today, one of the few buildings that remained standing at the time. Its buildings allowed the continuous surveillance of the inmates, who were subjected to different isolation regimes depending on the class they occupied on the ship. Initially, the commission composed of Francisco Antonio de Paula Freitas, engineer of the Empire, Doctor Nuno de Andrade, port health inspector and Antonio Luiz von Hoonholtz, the baron of Teffé, made reports forwarding to the Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, established the guidelines for the construction of a lazaretto and explained the reasons why the government should place it in Vila do Abraão, Ilha Grande, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
Among the main reasons for choosing the location was the fact that it is isolated from the mainland, the cove that allows several ships to dock at a distance from each other , the possibility of building several buildings and compartments, the favorable winds to renew the air, and the possibility of separating the different classes A, B, C that came in the ships, and the different levels of severity of each individual. In the reports Paula Freitas demonstrated the great importance of separating the classes that came on the ships.
They emphasized that the place should be solely and exclusively for the quarantine and observation of immigrants, not as a hospital or treatment center and when the disease is detected in someone, these should be transferred to another building or floating ward, ensuring the non-proliferation of the disease.
The project was debated and opposed by the Municipality of Angra dos Reis, as such a project would radically transform the future of the region. However, on July 6, 1884, the project considered the most expensive heritage of the Union started of (989,569,718). The imperial government bought three sites, at first the farm of the Dutchman in Vila do Abraão, where the main buildings were installed, then the farm of Dois Rios, bought to serve as a supply of water and foodstuffs, breeding. and conservation of the forests, and finally a plot of land in Bica, for the construction of a small isolation hospital, located near Ponta Grossa.
Several texts state that the Lazareto da Ilha Grande only functioned until 1913, but disinfection activities continued until much later, albeit at a slower pace.
Gradually the site was deactivated as new lazarettos were built along the coast increasing the effectiveness of health control in ports. New rigorous epidemiological methods no longer accepted the concentration of affected and unaffected patients in the same center, which made the place an unhealthy focus. Oswaldo Cruz positioned himself for the transformation of the Ilha Grande Lazareto into an agricultural colony destined to isolate and provide comfort to leprosy victims. He defended the use of the site for prophylaxis considered more effective for leprosy in the first decades of the 20th century: isolation for an indefinite period.
Belisário Penna, who had worked with the hygienist since 1903 and was an active member of the campaign to combat leprosy, has long defended the transformation of Ilha Grande into the "Municipality of Redenção", a place for victims of the Hansens mass. Penna argued that the The creation of a leper colony on the island would not pose a risk to the crews of the ships in operation and that the proximity to the mainland would prevent the patients established there from having the impression of exile.
José da Silva Joaquim Sardinha, one of the first directors of the Lazareto, argued that the Lazareto could lend itself to the installation of an agricultural institute for the boarding school for orphans , under the direction of the Dois Rios Correctional colony.
Despite pressure from Oswaldo Cruz, Belisário Pena and Joaquim Sardinha, the place did not become an isolation facility for leprosy patients or orphans, although, due to of his name is sometimes confused with a leper colony.
The built complex continued to carry out activities related to health control of travelers arriving at the ports, being, from time to time, used as a prison. Doctor Alfredo de Mello Alvim, appointed in 1903 by Oswaldo Cruz as substitute director of the Lazareto, ended up remaining at the head of the institution for a long period.
In October 1917, due to the declaration of war by Brazil against Germany, the government provisionally replaced the Lazareto da Ilha Grande with the Ministry of the Navy, National security. A month later, however, it was decided not to intern the German prisoners there and the measure was revoked, returning the institution to the care of the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs. At the time, as the various ports already had effective means of carrying out health control, the authorities no longer sent all ships to Ilha Grande because the measure, in addition to being unproductive, brought the risk of contamination along the way, the local is now restricted to special cases only.
However, the war caused devastation of all kinds in Europe, and some epidemics spread to other continents through maritime trade. Thus, in November 1918, the Lazaretto returned to centralize the health control of the ports, in order to prevent cholera. Teófilo Torres, director general of Public Health, informed the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs of the measures taken at the time.
In 1919, reports from the Port Health Inspection made several mentions of pneumonic influenza due to the war, as well as the centralized control of ships in Lazareto da Ilha Great. This one again received numerous vessels. About seven thousand passengers and countless patients were treated there. In the case of the English ship Darro, coming from Liverpool through Lisbon, of the 65 passengers it carried, 16 died during the voyage and the others were hospitalized in the quarantine station. a broad reformulation of health services and the DGSP was replaced by the National Department of Public Health, directed by Carlos Chagas, from its creation until 1926. The decree that regulated the activities of the new department established, in relation to maritime health defense, only two quarantine sites in the country, one in the north in Tamandaré, and another in the south, in Ilha Grande.
At the end of the government of Epitácio Pessoa, several soldiers who participated in the movement of the fort of Copacabana, in 1922, were arrested. And in July 1924 a new rebellion took place in Rio de Janeiro, already characterizing a second phase of the movement. Resistance to the government continued after the election of Artur Bernardes, who governed the country under a state of siege (1922-1926). The contestations were led by the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Borges de Medeiros, by the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Nilo Peçanha, and by military lieutenants. The arrests continued, and in 1925 the Lazareto was transformed into a private military prison under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, for people accused of political crimes. Upon taking office in 1926, President Washington Luís declared the end of the state of siege, and in 1927 the prison was abolished.
About one hundred soldiers were sent to Ilha Grande. As prisoners were not incarcerated all the time, many fled. Several lawsuits were filed, requesting that the fugitives be considered deserters. Political repression continued for years and for many accused of amnesty only came with the seizure of power by Getúlio Vargas in 1930. of partial freedom, although the escape from the island to the mainland was not easy. Therefore, the condition of prison was due to the difficulty of escape, and not to incarceration.
During the government of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945), the Lazareto buildings were once again used as a political prison. Those who participated in the Constitutionalist Revolt of 1932 were sent there. One of the most complete testimonies we have of this period is that of Orígenes Lessa, imprisoned on the island for three months. In addition to the report of great repercussion, “Não há de ser nada” (Lessa 1932), he also published the book Ilha Grande, a prisoner of war newspaper, in which he reports the arrival of the two thousand prisoners of the 1932 revolt (Lessa 1933)
The constitutional war was fought by businessmen and civilians who did not agree with Vargas' constitutional guidelines, and thousands of inmates were taken to the Ilha Grande prison, which it had only been built for up to 500 guests and thousands of inmates were being placed there in deplorable conditions, and some were even in dark, damp cells below sea level where they spent much of the day wet or damp.
After the Communist uprising, in November 1935, the arrest of militants and communists became routine. For the Two Rivers Correctional Colony and not for Lazareto. were Graciliano |Ramos and others. However, it was only in 1942 that Lazareto became president definitively. After huge renovations, the Penal Colony Cândido Mendes was created in the same place, which together with the Agricultural Colony of the Federal District, installed in Dois Rios, constituted one of the most significant prison complexes in the Republic. The penitentiary policy at the time focused on the recovery of common prisoners after their passage through agricultural colonies, and a large infrastructure was created on Ilha Grande. Plantations, workshops, animal husbandry and maintenance of the road and other penal facilities began to occupy the prisoners' day.
The penal colony was destroyed by implosion, with all its historic buildings, in 1962, by order of Governor Carlos Lacerda. Along with the dungeons of the penitentiary, whose ruins can still be seen today, the main landmarks of the old farm of the Dutchman, the Lazaretto and the quarantine policy were destroyed. Their memory, however, is still present among the residents of the region.
Supporting material for the text:https://www.scielo.br/j/hcsm/a/dLDTZHLShzVhcRhrM76PcCr/?lang=pt
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