Unlike other Recife districts, which are largely originating from primitive sugarcane mills, Capunga and Graças emerged from 19th-century settlements in the area extended from Camboa do Manguinho—today Parque Amorim (Amorim Park)—to the banks of the Capibaribe River, in an area limited by Estrada do Manguinho (Manguinho Street)—today Avenida Rui Barbosa (Rui Barbosa Avenue)—Rua da Baixa Verde (Lower Green Street), and Rua da Ventura (Venture Street)—today Rua Joaquim Nabuco (Joaquim Nabuco Street). This area was divided into two: Capunga Velha (Old Capunga), which had as its axis the current Rua Joaquim Nabuco, and Capunga Nova (New Capunga), which began in Quatro Cantos (Four Corners) and had as its axis the current Rua das Pernambucanas (Pernambucanas Street).
In 1759, sergeant major Luís Ferreira Feio and his wife D. Maria Correia Monteiro owned part of Capunga. On March 28, they sold it to the Azorean merchant Guilherme Fischer. When the merchant died, on September 18, his assets were transferred by testament to the Irmandade de São Pedro dos Clérigos do Recife (Fellowship of Saint Peter of the Clerics of Recife), where is now an area between Rua das Pernambucanas and Avenida Rui Barbosa, including both sides of Rua das Graças (Graces Street).
The French citizen Nicolau Gadault promoted the first settlement in that area, which was located in part of Capunga Velha, according to an announcement published in the Diario de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Daily) on November 17, 1835. The French citizen Bernard Lasserre, who was married to the Brazilian women Cândida Senhorinha Vieira, was the first to build in that area. He built his house on the banks of the Capibaribe, where is now Fundição Capunga (Capunga Foundry), current Faculdade Maurício de Nassau (Maurício de Nassau College), and where he built a port for canoes, which soon became known as Porto Lasserre (Lasserre Port). In this part of the Capibaribe, the Companhia de Trilhos Urbanos (Urban Rail Company) built an iron bridge in 1884, connecting the districts of Capunga and Madalena. Inevitably, this construction was called Lasserre Bridge and it preceded the current Capunga Bridge.
The bachelor Antônio de Araújo Ferreira Jacobina, from Bahia, owned the second settlement, later called Capunga Nova. On January 23, 1845, he requested the City Council of Recife “permission to open streets and lanes on his property in Capunga.” He became known as “Dr. Jacobina” and lived, according to an announcement in the Diario de Pernambuco of February 25, 1835, “in a good villa, on the bank of the Capibaribe,” which had “four rooms, nine bedrooms, a kitchen, and stables” and was located at the end of the Rua das Pernambucanas, in a place known as Porto Jacobina (Jacobina Port). The bachelor graduated from the University of Coimbra (1821) and died in Recife on October 5, 1870. One of the streets of the district was named after him.
From 1845, the two settlements became known as Capunga Velha and Capunga Nova and, according to press news of that time, some streets still keep their original names, such as Jacobina (1845), Quatro Cantos (1857), Baixa Verde (1844), Creoulas (1854), Jacinto (1857), Pernambucanas (1870), Amizade (1855), and Graças (1872). In 1885, Rua da Ventura (or do Ventura) was named Rua Joaquim Nabuco, where the following year, the future poet Manuel Bandeira was born in a corner house in the courtyard of the Fundição Capunga.
Although most of Capunga belonged to the Irmandade de São Pedro dos Clérigos do Recife, the new population lacked a church where they could attend Sunday Masses and other religious ceremonies. Lieutenant colonel Francisco Carneiro Machado Rios and his wife Cândida Tereza Vilela Rios felt this need for a church. Thus, on April 16, 1857, they donated a part of the estate “between Estrada do Manguinho and Capunga” to build “a chapel devoted to worship Our Lady of Graces”, whose cornerstone was laid on May 3, 1857. The construction of the chapel finished at the end of 1878 and on October 3 it was consecrated, thanks to the efforts of its donor, who “employed for this not only his and his slaves’ material services, but also valuation and friendship.”
The description of this chapel was published in the Diario de Pernambuco on October 5, 1884, without revealing the collaborator, that is, the name of the architect of such an important work. Provincial Law No. 939 of July 22, 1870, created the parish of Nossa Senhora da Graça da Capunga (Our Lady of Graces of Capunga), establishing the Igreja de São José do Manguinho (Church of St. Joseph of Manguinho) as its headquarter until the definitive completion of the chapel works. In 1872, Rua das Graças was completed, connecting Rua das Pernambucanas and the current Avenida Rui Barbosa. The new chapel, completed in 1878, became one of the most beautiful and harmonious religious chapels built at the end of the second half of the 19th century. The matrix, which displays in its frontispiece the phrase Ave Gratia Plena, was renovated in the first half of the 20th century and the renowned artist Heinrich Moser was responsible for the precious paintings and remarkable stained glass windows that adorn it—some of them are dated 1931 and 1932.
Capunga became one of the most pleasant settlements in Recife due to its mild climate and river baths, which attracted some of the most distinctive families of that time. In the face of such considerable progress, the parish registered a population of 4,511 free people and 922 slaves in 1872 and, according to press news of that time, all novelties arrived there: ice cream shops (1849); Thomas Sayle’s buses (1854), horse-drawn stagecoaches (portrayed in lithography by Louis Schlappriz); the Hotel da Capunga (Capunga Hotel), located in the square of the Fundição (1854); the Novo Hotel Pernambucano (New Hotel of Pernambuco), on the Rua das Pernambucanas (1858); the Sociedade Recreio Capunga (Capunga Recreational Society) (1857); the Sociedade Dramática Tália Pernambucana (Tália Pernambucana Dramatic Society), which owned the Teatro Santo Antônio da Capunga (St. Anthony of Capunga Theater) (1865); the Sociedade Filarmônica da Capunga (Capunga Philharmonic Society) (1865); and the first rail link (1867), by the main line of maxambomba (a little engine; language variation of the English expression “machine pump”), which stopped at Manguinho e Entroncamento. From 1885, the district started receiving trains bound for Várzea, wich has stops in Quatro Cantos and Porto Lasserre, and in 1883, it started using animal-drawn trams of the Pernambuco Street Railway Company, which were replaced by Pernambuco Tramways electric trams in 1915.
Similarly to Capunga and Graças, other current districts of Recife originated from settlements in areas that were located around the urban area of Recife in the 19th century, such as Soledade, Rosarinho (Sítio das Roseiras), Espinheiro, Beberibe, Fundão, João de Barros, Chacon, Água Fria, Aguazinha, Cajueiro, among others.
Recife, July 21, 2003.
how to quote this text
DANTAS, Leonardo. Capunga (Bairro, Recife). In: Pesquisa Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2003. Available at:https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/artigo/capunga-district-recife/. Access on: day month year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2020.)