One of São Paulo’s main tourist attract ions is, without a doubt, the Liberdade neighborhood! However, many people don’t know about its history or the origin of its name.
In addition to being the largest stronghold of the Japanese community in São Paulo, Liberdade has establishments for all kinds of activities. There, it’s common to find families venturing out to one of the oriental restaurants in the area, friends singing karaoke or young otaku browsing the shops for items from their favorite manga or anime.
However, anyone who sees today’s bustling and colorful neighborhood can hardly imagine that the place has rather morbid origins. Find out more!
The Liberdade neighborhood has had other names over the centuries
The history of the neighborhood dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, with the subdivision and occupation of old farms. As it was peripheral, the region served more as a passageway between the city center and Santo Amaro, which was still a municipality at that time.
Years later, in 1754, the construction of a weapons and ammunition depot gave rise to the name Bairro da Pólvora. At the time, the area where Praça da Liberdade stands today contained a gallows, where mainly runaway slaves were executed, and a pillory. Because of this, the place was given the macabre name of Largo da Forca.
Nearby was also the Cemetery of the Afflicted (or Cemetery of the Hanged), the city’s first public necropolis. Indigents and people who died on the gallows were all buried there, until the Consolação Cemetery was inaugurated in 1858.
It was only in 1870, with the abolition of the death penalty by hanging in Brazil, that executions ceased in the square. After that, the name of the place was finally changed to Praça da Liberdade, as we know it today.
But where does the “Freedom” of the square come from?
In 1821, the black soldier Francisco José das Chagas, nicknamed Chaguinha, led a revolution for better wages. For daring to defy the crown, he was condemned to die on the gallows.
Scheduled for September 20 of the same year, the execution did not take place as expected. On the first attempt, the rope used for the hanging snapped just after the stage opened. Minutes later, in a new attempt, another rope broke.
The almost 10,000 people who were there to watch the execution asked the soldiers not to continue with their mission to kill Chaguinha, fearing that the two failed attempts were a divine sign .
They shouted “freedom, freedom” in favor of the young man, who had grown up in the area, but the outcry was not enough. The executioners tried again and finally succeeded in bringing the hanging to a close.
In 1870 , it was the cries of the population that gave rise to the name of Praça da Liberdade and, consequently, the neighborhood. Finally, in 1887, the Santa Cruz da Alma dos Enforcados chapel was erected in the square, in memory of Chaguinha and all the others who had met their end on that gallows.
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