Le nuove vedute della capitale: Two Italian architects in the city of Paraíba at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

 This paper presents the contribution of Italian architects Paschoal Fiorillo (1884-1954) and Hermenegildo Di Lascio (1884-1957) to the transformation of the architecture and urban landscape in the city of Paraíba (now João Pessoa, Paraíba) in the early decades of the 20th century, amid modernization, sanitation, and beautification policies implemented during the First Brazilian Republic, especially under the Camilo de Hollanda government (1916-1920). Understood within the context of the Italian presence in the city, which was expressive in its social, cultural, and economic aspects, albeit quantitatively limited, the trajectories of Fiorillo and Di Lascio are seen as archetypal of a broader and still understudied set of actions performed by Italian professionals in shaping the city at the turn of the century. Considering the entwinement between personal and professional paths, this paper elucidates social arrangements and distinct work procedures explored by Fiorillo and Di Lascio to meet the demands of a public and private construction market that was at once limited and unstable, in practices in which mastery of a broad architectural lexicon grounded in eclecticism was invaluable. Considering the enduring colonial marks etched into the capital’s landscape and architecture around the fin de siècle, and how uneasy this aesthetic stagnation felt within the emergence of new republican values, the changes inlaid by these professionals defined the tone of a fleeting and belated local belle époque, presenting a tangible expression of the desired modernity amidst limitations then imposed.