When heritage takes the reins of history and memory: the (re)flourishment of the Law School of Recife at the beginning of the 21st century

Abstract

An Imperial project executed by the Republic and, nowadays, under the tutelage of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), the headquarters of the Law School of Recife (FDR) constituted, during the military regime, an emblematic example of the neglect that often affects our patrimonial heritage, despite the historical link of that building with the socio-aca-demic and political elite of Pernambuco (SANTOS, 2016). Cradle of the University of Recife and of UFPE’s first dean, Joaquim Ignácio de Almeida Amazonas (1946 to 1959), the 110-year-old building is linked to the history and memory of the Law and social courses created in 1827. Nevertheless, threatened with near ruin - which motivated the federal registration and a palliative structural intervention in order to safeguard it - it was only at the beginning of the 21st century that the building began to re-erect in its architectural, historical and memorial dimensions, due to the actions of the Luciana Grassano administration (2007-2015). In the first section of this text, through photographic records, this article highlights the historical and architectural peculiarities of the property that resulted in it being a Brazilian national monument since 1980. In the second section, actions of the Grassano administration, that implied institutional uplift in their memorial and historical aspects, are exposed. A conclusion is reached that the absence of an institutional policy to ensure the maintenance of the buildings and assets within the scope of UFPE violates the constitu-tional rule (RIBEIRO, 2016), and, if it does not, it compromises the health and longevity of patrimonial assets such as FDR, by leaving them at the mercy of the idiosyncrasy of ephemeral administrators.