Lapa Arches

Beneath these white arches beats the heart of Lapa, the home of Rio's bohemian nightlife. But before it was a backdrop for the night, the aqueduct was a vital piece of engineering… and a target for sabotage.

1Water for the city

Bringing water from the Carioca River into the centre was an obsession from 1602. A first aqueduct was finished in 1723, but by 1727 there were complaints of shortages, and broken pipes were blamed on quilombolas, runaway slaves hiding in the forest. Governor Gomes Freire de Andrade had it rebuilt in stone and lime, and the present structure, with 42 double arches, opened in 1750. Since 1896, what crosses the top is not water but the Santa Teresa tram.

2The realm of Madame Satã

In the early twentieth century Lapa was a world of cabarets, gambling dens and malandros. Its most legendary figure was João Francisco dos Santos, born in Pernambuco around 1900, who arrived here as a boy and worked as a waiter, cook, capoeira fighter and drag performer. The nickname Madame Satã came from a police chief after the 1938 carnival, when he won a costume contest dressed as a bat.

He faced some thirty criminal cases and spent more than 27 years in prison in total. Lapa turned him into a myth, and the myth grew with every retelling.

He died in 1976, and his life inspired the 2002 film Madame Satã.

3What to look for

• The two tiers of arches and the round openings along the top.
• The yellow tram, if it rattles across.
• The cone-shaped cathedral peeking out behind the arches.