Lapa Arches

You're facing the largest architectural work of colonial Brazil. These white arches, now Lapa's postcard image, were built to solve a serious problem: thirst.

1A thirsty city

Colonial Rio was surrounded by salt water and lagoons, yet short of drinking water. The answer lay in the Carioca River, flowing down from the mountains, and from 1602 governors tried to bring it into town. A first aqueduct was finished in 1723 and fed the fountain in today's Largo da Carioca, but it wasn't enough. Governor Gomes Freire de Andrade had it rebuilt, to a design attributed to José Fernandes Pinto Alpoim, and the present structure opened in 1750. It was built by enslaved Indigenous and African labour.

2From aqueduct to viaduct

It's about 270 metres long and 17.6 metres high, with 42 double arches modelled on Lisbon's Águas Livres Aqueduct. In the nineteenth century other water systems took over and, since 1896, what crosses the top is not water but the bondinho, the tram that climbs to the hillside neighbourhood of Santa Teresa.

The naturalists Spix and Martius described it in 1823 as «the most beautiful and useful architectural monument» in Rio.

3What to look for

• The two tiers of arches, whitewashed.
• The yellow tram as it crosses overhead.
• Fundição Progresso and the Sala Cecília Meireles concert hall around the square.