Project

In the mid-19th century, the Saõ Paulo Railway Company laid a snaking network of tracks over Brazil’s green mountains. In order to transport coffee beans from inland plantations to the port of Santos on the south coast, a railroad funicular was incorporated that could lift entire trains full of cargo over the undulating terrain. (...)

In the mid-19th century, the Saõ Paulo Railway Company laid a snaking network of tracks over Brazil’s green mountains. In order to transport coffee beans from inland plantations to the port of Santos on the south coast, a railroad funicular was incorporated that could lift entire trains full of cargo over the undulating terrain. A British company provided the steam engines that drove the operation and also founded a workers’ village on the highest point in the area, called Paranapiacaba, meaning “a place to view the sea” in Tupi-Guarani. The small houses for railway and funicular employees were constructed from wood, in a style similar to those of British mining towns. Paranapiacaba’s civic buildings and larger homes were Victorian in design, and its train station was adorned with a clock tower in imitation of London’s Big Ben. The village thrived for 30 years before the introduction of automated machinery undermined the effectiveness of the labor-intensive funicular. Paranapiacaba’s population dispersed and its buildings were abandoned by all but a few, left to deteriorate on the hillsides.