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The Santa Barbara da Vila Fort, or simply Santa Barbara Fort, is located in the city of Florianópolis, on the island and state of Santa Catarina, Brazil.



This fort was erected to defend the old village of Nossa Senhora do Desterro (present-day city of Florianópolis), on a small island bordering the old Canto (or Vila) beach, on the narrow channel by the south bay.



Plans and maps of the time indicate that the structure already existed in 1774, and is part of the survey of Ensign José Correia Rangel for the Portuguese Crown ("Plan to serve as a demonstration of the fortified places of Santa Catarina Island", 1786. in: RANGEL , José Correia Defense of Santa Catarina Island and Rio Grande de São Pedro Ministry of War, Lisbon).



During the first half of the nineteenth century, it served as a military ward (SOUZA, 1885: 126), transferred to the Campo do Manejo Barracks in 1861, when the building (National itself) became the Port Authority of the Provinces of St. Peter. Rio Grande and Santa Catarina, the Ministry of the Navy. The Provincial Government's projects to adapt the property at the lowest cost followed one another until 1871, when the Troop Barracks were demolished and a two-storey shed for the reception of settlers was added. Subsequently, the gunboats were closed, a parapet was built over the wall, flower boxes were installed, and the embankment was paved. New renovations began on January 11, 1875, under the direction of the Captain of Porto, placing the ridge of the Captaincy of Porto on April 10, 1875. In June of the following year the house for the Commander was completed. from Porto, adjacent to the Capitania building (VEIGA, 1993). During the Federalist Revolution (1893-1895), it was used as the seat of the State Government, having saved on the occasion of the inauguration of the Captain of the Sea-and-War Frederico Guilherme de Lorena as head of the revolutionary Provisional Government in Santa Catarina (October 14 1893), to be taken back by the loyalist troops under the command of Colonel Antonio Moreira Cesar (March 17, 1894) (Garrido, 1940: 144).



During the first half of the twentieth century, new interventions were introduced into the ensemble, completely decharacterizing it, giving it the characteristic architectural lines of the 1930s (which it still retains), having just been linked to the island, fruit of marine landfills between the city center and the old Canto beach. In the 1950s the arches of the stone masonry bridge that connected the fort to the earth were still noticeable. In the 1960s, with the closing of the port of Florianópolis to navigation, and the deactivation of the Captaincy of Ports, the fort was threatened with demolition, so that its space would integrate the leisure area of ​​the capital and drain traffic from the Colombo Sales bridge. , which links the island to the mainland as part of the new South Bay landfill (1973). The local press promoted a series of debates about the relevance or not of preserving the old fort, which, despite the marked degree of decharacterization, both of its original architecture and surroundings, had its preservation guaranteed.



In 1984, the result of this controversy and the recognition of its unquestionable historical value, the fort and its surrounding area, totaling 5,086 m², were listed by the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage. Still housing the Port Authority of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, the City Hall and the IBPC were studying projects aimed at the recovery, restoration and revitalization of the structure for cultural activities (theater, museum, art school, exhibition area, with restaurant, bar , playground), and the lowering of the surroundings to sea level is foreseen, adapting to the space thus recovered a water mirror, restoring the original situation of the square, surrounded by water.



The property can be seen at Rua Antônio Luz, 260, next to the Florianópolis City Urban Bus Terminal, in the Baía Sul embankment, in the historic city center.



Its original plan, in the shape of an irregular polygon, raised in masonry made of stone and lime, housed in its embankment a building with a four-floor roof, comprising the Troop Barracks, the Warehouse and the House of Gunpowder. The embankment was lined with a wall about 70 centimeters thick at the top, almost 5 meters above sea level at low tide, communicating with the earth by a stone masonry bridge over archways. It was artillery with twelve pieces of bronze and one of iron of various calibers, being iconographically recorded in the works of Jean-François de La Pérouse (1797), Adam Johann von Krusenstern (1803), Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1812), Jean -Baptiste Debret (1822) and others.

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