CASTLE OF ROMANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1931, Page 2

CASTLE OF ROMANCE

BRAZIL’S IMPERIAL GLORIES. DUST OF GLITTERING PAST. Among the fading glories that were once imperial Brazil is a building which formerly housed Brazil’s most magnificent and most romantically interesting couple. Out in the Sao Christovao district — not many minutes ly automobile from the business centre —is a rambling old palace. Its broed wings cover a large expanse of hilltop, while its turrets jut above the surrounding country, looking directly toward, the sea on one side and toward the old. imperial palace on the other. An insurmountable wall, now in bad. repair, surrounds the liill castle, which was once the home of Domitila, Marquise de Santos, beautiful and gay Brazilian, who was the love and inspiration, so history says, of Dom Pedro 1., Emperor of Brazil. The castle was built more than a hundred years ago, soon after Dom Pedro I. had brought Domitila to Rio de Janeiro from her home in Sao Paulo, where she had been the wife of a young cavalry officer, divorced in favour of the sprightly ruler. The castle commanded a view or the entire city, and from its balconies Domitila could see the beach or watch the Emperor’s carriage leave his official home on the daily excursion to the castle and her. The halls of the turreted building which once echoed to the soft music of the “contradanca,” are vacant and stilled. They give forth a dusty aroma of a glittering past, while the paneless windows of the palace blindly stare over a strange panorama of swiftly moving traffic along streets where once only stately carriages moved. Nothing has been done toward the repair and preservation of this historic building. Goats run along the side hills, which were once terraced lawns and in gardens. Children play in the spacious halls, while the city sweeps past without a thought of its past glories.