A GARDEN OF RES PUBLICA: CHALLENGES OF PRESERVATION AND APPRECIATION OF HISTORICAL GARDEN OF CATETE PALACE

Abstract

The Catete Palace was the residence of Antonio Clemente Pinto – the Baron of Nova Friburgo – from 1866 to 1869, and the official residence of the Presidency of Brazil, from 1897 to 1960. It was designed by the german architect Carl Friederich Waehneldt. The garden of the palace, in the Republican period, was designed by Paul Villon respecting the lines attributed to Auguste Marie Glaziou, renowned landscape artist of the 19th century, his mentor. Reference of the later Neoclassicism in Rio de Janeiro, its historical and artistic values were recognized in 1938, when it’s considered brazilian cultural heritage, while urban-landscape complex. Home of the memory of the Brazilian Republic with the creating of the Republic Museum in 1960, it’s a place of sociability of daily users, and also a touristic point. The aim out the purpose of this articleis to initiate a reflection of the challenges of preservation and the use of a very much alive patrimony – the garden of the Catete Palace – who suffered and still suffers many changes over fifteen decades’ occupation, to suggest some actions of preservation for its recovery.