The sugar mills around Porto de Galinhas PE date back to Colonial Brazil.
The historical origin and the social and economic development of the state of Pernambuco are markedly linked to the activity of the sugar agroindustry, which, after four centuries of apogee, left as a legacy to the people of Pernambuco innumerable customs and traditions that are still strongly rooted in the local culture, as well as as material records of exceptional historical, artistic and landscape value.
However, over the years, this heritage has suffered successive damages and losses as a result of the modernization of the sugar production process and the scarcity of measures to safeguard it.
As a consequence, the few sugar mills, which still remain in Pernambuco, are in a state of abandonment and/or ruin, with rare exceptions.
Engenho Gaipió, located in the rural area of the municipality of Ipojuca, is one of those rare exceptions.
The flow of tourists in Port of Chickens, Southern Coast of Pernambuco, is intense in January. Mainly because of the sea and the disputed strip of sand.
Visitors can come into contact with properties that date back to Colonial Brazil. Anyone visiting the region should reserve a few hours to go back in time and discover three mills that are still in full swing.
Sugar mills around Porto de Galinhas PE
Engenho Gaipió in Ipojuca PE
Engenho Massangana in Cabo de Santo Agostinho PE06:03
Engenho Massangana - The only Engenho Pernambucano linked to abolition55:03
1. Engenho Gaipió
One of the main ones in the region, Engenho Gaipió is located in the rural area of Ipojucana and was, for a long time, home to important personalities of Pernambuco, such as former governor Ambrósio Machado da Cunha Cavalcanti.
The main house, built in 1863, preserves the neoclassical style furniture and the typical decoration of the XNUMXth century society.
Engenho Gaipió, located in the rural area of the municipality of Ipojuca, is one of these rare exceptions.
Engenho Gaipió has preserved its architectural and landscape complex, even after having undergone considerable changes arising from a partial expropriation for land reform purposes, carried out in 1997 by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA).
The construction of Engenho Gaipió dates from 1783 to 1787. According to the historical reports researched by the Special Secretariat for Culture of Ipojuca, following the construction of the Casa Grande, a Chapel was built next to the headquarters in honor of São José, who became the patron saint of the ingenuity.
Seventy-six years later, in 1863, Félix da Câmara Pimentel, grandson of the founder of the mill, transferred the location of Casa Grande to the next hill.
A neoclassical-style mansion was built on the site and a new chapel was built on the same site as the one built by his grandfather.
The local religious festival dates back to the end of the 100th century, with records starting to take place in the last XNUMX years.
There was a period when the festival of São José was deactivated after part of the mill was turned into an INCRA settlement in the 1990s, leaving part of the mill, the Casa Grande and the Chapel, outside the demarcation.
As the owner of the remaining area of Engenho Gaipió, where the Chapel of São José and Casa Grande are located, the Marroquim Family decided to reactivate the religious festival in 2003, reviving the date and incorporating the traditional procession and masses into the folkloric and popular part.
Ipojuca is approximately 21km from Porto de Galinhas.
2. Engenho Massangana
Rural architectural complex from the XNUMXth century, consisting of the Casa-Grande and Capela de São Mateus in an area of ten hectares, Engenho Massangana is located in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, in the State of Pernambuco.
The name of the mill, of African origin, comes from the Massangana river which, at the time of the sugar boom, served for the flow of what was produced there, and in the mills in the region, to the port of Recife.
It is believed that Tristão de Mendonça founded Engenho Massangana, through the donation of a piece of land in the municipality made by Duarte Coelho, the first grantee of the Captaincy of Pernambuco.
Listed at the state level as Abolition National Park, Massangana was the place where the illustrious Pernambuco native Joaquim Nabuco lived during his childhood and is referred to by him as the place where he built the base of his abolitionist ideals.
Such reports are present in his book Minha Formação (1910), whose content is explored in the permanent exhibition Nabuco e Massangana: o tempo revisitada.
In addition to spontaneous visitation, the equipment systematically receives the student public.
Through an educational program, topics such as the legacy of Joaquim Nabuco's thought, slavery and freedom struggles, Afro-Brazilian culture and the sugarcane economy are addressed, seeking to contribute to the production of new knowledge, strengthening of heritage awareness and cultural identity.
The property features a museum of furniture dating from the same period, located in the main building, and the baroque chapel of São Mateus. In these spaces, the writer Joaquim Nabuco lived a good part of his childhood and began his abolitionist struggle.
Praia de Porto de Galinhas is the main tourist center on the south coast, just 33 km from Cabo Santo Agostinho.
