turismo ·
Prince photographed the Falls a hundred years ago; images vanish
Guia 3 newsroom · edited by Annie GrellmannEspañolPortuguês
In 1926, Dom Pedro de Alcântara visited Foz do Iguaçu and brought photographic records that have never been found
In early October 1926, Dom Pedro de Alcântara of Orléans and Braganza, son of Princess Isabel, returned from a three-week expedition through the Iguaçu Falls region with a collection of photographs that have disappeared from history. The whereabouts of these images remain unknown to this day.
The news of the trip was published on October 5, 1926 by the newspaper A Tribuna of Santos. According to the periodical, the prince traveled through Foz do Iguaçu, then a small military colony, and also visited the Guayra Falls on the Argentine and Paraguayan sides, being received with friendly gestures everywhere.
The prince was an amateur photographer and returned with what the era described as "beautiful photographic plates" of the Iguaçu and Guayra Falls. A photograph by secretary and photographer Mario Baldi documents the expedition’s boats on the Paraná River, in Epitácio Pessoa, with the caption "Viagem ao Iguassú", confirming the traveler’s identity.
In 1926, Foz do Iguaçu was still a remote locality. That year’s Revista Marítima Brasileira reiterated a 1903 assessment: in the Alto Paraná region, "nothing belongs to us there except the land". At the same time, discussions were underway about building a railway linking Porto União to Foz do Iguaçu, a project that had been stipulated in a contract since 1916.
This story is part of the book The History That Was Saved from Fire by Carlos Alberto Grellmann, about the pioneers of Foz do Iguaçu, now being released.
Source: 100fronteiras.com — https://100fronteiras.com/historia-de-foz/noticia/ha-cem-anos-um-principe-fotografou-as-cataratas-do-iguacu
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