Ladeira da Misericórdia

Look at that stony slope climbing up and ending in thin air. It's the Ladeira da Misericórdia, Rio's first public street, and what's missing at the top is an entire hill.

1The city on the hill

In 1567, after driving out the French, the Portuguese moved the city founded by Estácio de Sá up onto Morro do Castelo, which was easier to defend. Up there stood the Jesuit college, the first cathedral and the founder's remains. This slope was the main way up. In 1922 Mayor Carlos Sampaio had the hill razed, and its earth was used to fill in areas such as Urca and the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon. Only this stretch survived, with its original paving.

2The Jesuits' treasure

From the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1759, rumour had it they had hidden treasure in secret tunnels beneath the hill. Yet the governor reported to Lisbon that only about 500,000 réis had been found at the college. Even so, in the nineteenth century people kept asking for permission to dig. In 1905, during work on the new Avenida Central, a tunnel came to light, and the young Lima Barreto wrote about it in the Correio da Manhã.

An inventory even circulated listing 67 tonnes of gold and a golden Saint Ignatius with diamond eyes. Nobody ever found a thing.

Researchers think the tunnels were real, but meant for water, supplies or escape, not treasure.

3What to look for

• The «pé de moleque» paving, the same stones the colonists walked on.
• The abrupt end of the slope, where the hill once began.
• The Santa Casa da Misericórdia, the city's oldest hospital.