Fort Copacabana

History

The fort occupies a headland that once held a small chapel with a replica of the statue of Our Lady Copacabana, patron saint of Bolivia. In 1908 the Brazilian army began constructing a modern coastal defense fort there to protect Copacabana beach and the entrance to Rio de Janeiro's harbour. Completed in 1914, the fort features two armoured cupolas: one named "Duque de Caxias" holds a pair of 305 mm Krupp cannons (named "Barroso" and "Osório"), and the other named "André Vidal" holds a pair of 190 mm Krupp cannons. The 305 mm cupola sits behind and above the 190 mm cupola so it can fire over it. The 305 mm guns could fire a 445 kg shell up to 23 km, while the 190 mm guns had a range from 200 m to 18.2 km. Two small retractable casements on the flanks each held a 75 mm quick-firing gun with a 180° traverse and a 7 km range; these 75 mm guns are no longer in place. The north casement is named "Antônio João" and the south casement "Ricardo Franco". On 5 July 1922 the fort was the centre of the 18 of the Copacabana Fort revolt, the first revolt of the tenentista movement during the Brazilian Old Republic. Rebel officers turned the fort's guns on Rio de Janeiro. The government brought the battleships São Paulo and Minas Geraes; São Paulo bombarded the fort on 6 July, firing five salvos with at least two hits, and the fort surrendered half an hour later. Brazil disbanded its coastal defense artillery branch in 1987, deactivating the fort as a coastal artillery post. The cupolas at Copacabana, along with those at nearby Fort Lage and Fort Imbui, are the only remaining heavy fortress cupolas of Krupp design in the world.