The colective residence expropiation in the urban renovation of Braga, in the second half of 19th Century

Abstract

The city of Braga during the second half of the XIX th century, like the other portuguese cities, was submitted to an intense urbanistic dynamism, which was shown in the enlargement of the greatest part of streets in its historical center. Besides the changes in the urban drawing, many of the inherited buildings of the past were gone, giving birth to a new cadastral structure and beginning a renovation phase. The present study gives evidence of the collective expropriation process tutored by the Town Hall, systematically expressed through a series of documents, composed by acts of "friendly transaction" of property, existing in the municipal archive and celebrated between 1861 and 1928. From the perspective of the residence expropriation it was possible to rebuilt the process of urban animation, in its rhythmic and spatial slopes, electing the fountain as an essential element for the comprehension of the urban geography of Braga in the referred period.