A charming reminder of Old Rio.
The Rio Carioca flows alongside a little square, surrounded by homes which were built in a neocolonial style, in the twenties with……….. retrieved from homes in the center of Rio which were being destroyed to give way to high rises and businesses.
The Rio Carioca is the reason inhabitants of Rio are called Cariocas. In those days the river provided the city with clear waters (no longer so unfortunately). The Tamoyo Indians believed that a bath in the river would increase a women’s beauty and the virility of a man.
One of the houses has a musharabi, much used in Arab countries, a fanciful stonework which hid the women looking out of the windows. Although quite popular in Spain and Portugal at the time, they were forbidden in Brazil by the King Jo’ao VI, because he was afraid of assassins.
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