The Rio de Janeiro City Hall will expropriate what remains of a historic two-story mansion that partially collapsed on Saturday morning (19) in Cosme Velho, in the city's south zone, leaving two people injured.
The debris injured two people who were passing by the site — a 43-year-old woman and her daughter, a two-year-old child who was in a stroller. The victims were attended to by the Fire Department and taken to a hospital.
The expropriation announcement was made by Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere (PSD). In addition to the property, he will expropriate other buildings in the area: the Casa Portinari, located across the street, and the Solar dos Abacaxis, in the same neighborhood.
"This will be the first block of properties in the region, and we will also carry out a new wave of expropriations in the historic city center," he said. "We need to prevent scenes like the one today, caused by the lack of preservation and responsibility on the part of property owners."
According to Cavaliere, the city hall has a role to intervene, expropriate and put the properties up for public auction. In this way, he said, they can be given a new purpose and serve the population.
The collapse also affected a neighboring property. Both buildings were sealed off by Civil Defense and had their second floors demolished in an emergency operation by the Municipal Secretariat of Conservation to prevent further accidents.
The two neighboring structures housed a rooming house, with ten rooms and eclectic architecture, and the Panificação Rainha bakery, which operated on the site from the 1960s until 2021.
The properties had been abandoned, even though the mansion had recently appeared on specialized real estate websites listed for sale at R$ 6.3 million, with a preserved façade and the possibility of interior renovation.
The abandonment had been officially reported by the Viva Cosme Velho association, formed by neighborhood residents. In a letter sent to city hall in March of this year, the association pointed to the presence of water infiltration, damaged fixtures and cladding, and the risk of roof collapse due to the large amount of vegetation.
"Given its very poor state of conservation, a Civil Defense restriction barrier was put up. However, as the sidewalk is very narrow, pedestrians have no way to go around and pass through a safer area," the letter states.
The Casa Portinari, included by the mayor in the expropriation package, was once the headquarters of the Taoist Society of Brazil and the residence of painter Candido Portinari from 1943 to 1950.
According to the residents' association, the property is also abandoned and deteriorated. A Viva Cosme Velho report states that part of the roof has collapsed and the house has structural problems.
The Solar dos Abacaxis, in neoclassical style, is a mansion built in 1850 with bronze pineapple-shaped ornaments on its balconies. Despite having hosted cultural projects over the past decade, it also presents structural damage, according to the association.
