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Facts and history of sugar loaf, Pao de Acucar
The history of sugar loaf, which were to become world famous, was opened in 1912 as a new aerial alternative for tourists in Rio. Today the little carriages carrying people to the sugarloaf are incorporated in the caraocian landscape of Copacabana.
The history of sugar loaf goes back to a geology created over 600 millions years ago, under high temperatures and pressure to its current majestic form. The sugarloaf has always been surrounded with tropical vegetation which today is remnants of the Atlantic rainforest found still in Rio de Janeiro. The top still has species extinct other places along the coastline of Brazil.
During the history of sugar loaf it has had several names attached to it. If we take them chronologically we get:
Pau-nh-açuquã" of the Tupi language, given by the Tamoios, the primitive inhabitants of the Bay of Guanabara, and meant "high, isolated mount and precise";
“Pot de beurre” given by the invading Frenchmen on the first invasion.
"Pao de assucar" or sugarloaf given by the first Portuguese colonizadores; It’s worth noticing the two ‘ss’ in assucar from previous orthography of the Portuguese Language. Today it’s written ‘Pao de Acucar’.
Then again the Frenchmen invaded and called it "Pot de Sucre".
According to the historian, Vieira Fazenda, the name Pao de Acucar or Sogarloaf in English, was appointed the mountain by the potuguese during the extraction of brazilian sugar canes in century XVI and XVII. After the sugar canes was boiled and refined, the sugar blocks were placed in mud containers of a conical form called sugarloaves for transport to Europe. The shape of the containers bore a strong resemblance with today’s sugarloaf, making it easy to assume the history of sugar loaf name.
The name Bread of Sugar or Sugarloaf (Pao de accucar) was accepted from the second half of century XIX, when Rio De Janeiro received the artistic paintings from the drawer and German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas and from the graphical artist French Jean Baptiste Debret who, in magnificent drawings and engravings, imprisoned the beauty of the Bread of Sugar forever.
The Sugarloaf is a landmark of Rio de Janerio in many ways:
It’s a natural landmark, because the peak of Pao de Accucar is in the entrance of the Bay of Guanabara, being a visual reference for navigators of the sea or air as it’s located in the periphery of the city.
The sugarloaf is a historical landmark, because to its feet, Estácio de Sá (Name of a person, and also today, name of a university in Rio), on 1º of March of 1565, established the City of São Sebastião of Rio de Janeiro. Estácio de Sá arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 28th of February 1565 and on the 1st day of March he launched the beddings of the city, between the mountains of Cara de Cão and Pão de Açúcar as it was the best defendable location. The mountain allowed for observation of all movments in and out by boats, as well as providing view inlands thereby protecting against all possible invaders.
In the history of sugar loaf, it’s last but not least also a tourist landmark, because the inauguration of the ferry cable of the Bread of Sugar in 1912, projected the name of Brazil in the exterior. The ferry cable of the Bread of Sugar was the first one installed in Brazil and the third in the world, rocketing development of the national tourism. It is not for nothing that the sugarloaf is called the ‘Tourist Jewel of the Wonderful City’ Rio de Janeiro.
Legends of the Sugarloaf:
As an antique monument Pao de Acucar also has its share of historic legends. Looking at the mountain you can, according to Brazilians, spot a 200m tall very old figure on it’s side, called the the stone guardian.
A second version of the history of sugar loaf legend claims that this figure is the São Pedro hugging the mountain of Pao de acucar, which represents the church.
Above of its head one can observe a calot – hat only wore by the bishops (Looks like the hat judes wear) - and Peter was considered the bishop of the bishops. The image also exhibits a long vestment used habitually for the hierarchic priests and Peter was the first head of the Church of Christ.
Yet another legend can be seen at 11 o’clock as a shade in the socket of the rock, with about 120 height m, forming the silhouette of a long-legged bird, called by Brazilians for: Íbis of Pao de Acucar or the Ibis of the Sugarloaf.
In Egyptian mythology there is an image of the humanity as a lying giant having Íbis, the sacred bird of Egypt, chained to its feet.
Seen from the ocean, the Cariocas claim that the mountains represents the silhouette of a lying giant - where the chin is the Pedra da Gávea (a mountain in Rio transelated to the Rock of the Topsail ), the trunk is the Maciço da Tijuca (Bulk of the Tijuca) and the foot is the Pao de Acucar, Sugarloaf. Some say that the Egyptian version is inspired from the history of sugar loaf in Rio de Janeiro. This means Egyptians would have been in Brazil before the birth of Christ. So it seems like the first tourists in Brazil was Egyptian ;)
Who knows, maybe its true?
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