Forte de Copacabana
The Forte de Copacabana is a military base on the southern end of the beach in the district of Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro . The base is open to the public and contains the Museu Histórico do Exército and a fortress on the coast.
history
The fortress was built on a headland, where originally there was a small chapel , in which a replica of the Virgen de Copacabana , the patron saint of Bolivia, was kept. In 1908, the Brazilian army began to build a modern fortress on the headland for defense purposes to protect both Copacabana beach and the entrance to the port of Rio de Janeiro. The fortress, completed in 1914, consists of two towers, one with 305 mm Krupp cannons and the other with 190 mm Krupp cannons.
The tower with the 305 mm cannons is named Duque de Caxias, the cannons are called Barroso and Osório . This tower is behind and above the other one called André Vidal . Krupp's 305 mm cannons could fire a bullet weighing around 445 kg and a range of up to 23 km. The other cannons could fire from a distance of 200 m to 18.2 km.
The fortress also has two small retractable wings, each with a 75mm cannon with a range of 7km. In contrast to the large cannons, these cannons are no longer available. The north wing is called Antônio João and the south wing is called Ricardo Franco . [Note 2]
On July 5, 1922, the fortress was the focus of the 18th Copacabana Fortress Uprising. It was the first uprising of the Tenentista movement . Rebel officers aimed the fortress cannons on Rio de Janeiro. To suppress the uprising, the government launched the military ships São Paulo and Minas Geraes . On July 6th, São Paulo bombed the fortress, after half an hour the rebels surrendered in the fortress. The other ship, Minas Geraes , did not shoot.
In 1987 the military base was disbanded.
As part of the 2016 Summer Olympics , Forte de Copacabana was the venue for road bike races , open water swimming and triathlon competitions .
Web links
- Official website (Portuguese)
- Forte de Copacabana on joinrio.com (English)
Competition venues for the 2016 Summer Olympics
Coordinates: 22 ° 59 ′ 12.3 " S , 43 ° 11 ′ 15.6" W.