Arco do Teles

Step through the arch and you step into another century. This stone passage is one of the oldest corners of Rio and the setting for its darkest legend.

1An arch to keep the way open

Around 1745, the orphans' judge Antônio Telles Barreto de Menezes built rental houses here for wealthy tenants, designed by José Fernandes Pinto Alpoim, the architect of the Paço. Because the row would block the passage between the square and today's Rua do Ouvidor, Alpoim opened an arch through one of the buildings. Inside, a small shrine held an image of Our Lady of Pleasures. In 1790 a fire gutted the houses and, with them, almost the entire municipal archive. The area lost its prestige and the alley filled with thieves and prostitutes.

2The witch of the arch

This is where the legend comes in. According to popular tradition, a Portuguese woman named Bárbara, who worked as a prostitute under the arch, grew older and wanted her beauty back at any cost. The most gruesome versions say she stole newborns left at the foundling wheel to bathe in their blood. She became known as Bárbara dos Prazeres, after the image in the arch.

No document proves any of these crimes. The chronicler Brasil Gerson recorded the story, but its truth remains uncertain.

One firmer fact about the alley: in 1925, Carmen Miranda's family moved into Travessa do Comércio.

3What to look for

• The stone vault of the arch, with the recess where the shrine once was.
• The cobbles of the alley and its colonial houses.
• The plaques recalling the history of the place.