Olinda para quem? o processo de tombamento do sítio histórico da cidade de Olinda (1968-1980)

Abstract

The listing of the historic site of Olinda carried out by DPHAN (1968), the elevation to a Monument City and the worldwide recognition as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (1982), gave the Historic Site of Olinda a place on the list of historic urban centers that are world-renowned. In Olinda, this patrimonialization process was elaborated amidst several urban, political and social impasses. Among which, we can highlight the growth of the urban fabric of the city over the centuries and the advent of industrialization, which were accompanied by problems both in relation to the management of the municipality, and in relation to the natural causes aggravated by the irregular occupation of the soil by the population, early 20th century. With the growth of the port area of Recife, widening of streets, landfills, construction of roads, growth in the use of new machines and transport, Olinda with its old houses and streets, previously apparently untouchable, seemed increasingly ready to have its colonial characteristics modified. Aiming to interrupt the imminent cycle of disappearance of these characteristics of the Historic Site of Olinda, DPHAN and several intellectuals and politicians act in favor of the overthrow of the nucleus, a fact more evident since the 1960s, with the transition of the presidency of DPHAN and the institution of the Military Regime in Brazil. It is from these aspects that four periods in the process of patrimonialization of the Historic Site of Olinda are analyzed at work: 1 - the preservation of isolated monuments; 2 - the listing of the Historic Site; 3 - the extension of the preservation polygon; and 4 - transformation of Olinda into a Monument City. The research aims, therefore, to identify the meanings attributed to the Historic Site of Olinda in this process, by defining the importance that cultural policy, social memory and local historical identity had, inside and outside institutions, from the analysis of interests involved in the preservation.