Designed by Rodolfo Bernadelli and inaugurated in 1910, on the initiative of the Engineering Club, the bronze statue placed on a Doric column is a tribute to Irineu Evangelista de Souza, the Viscount of Mauá (1813-1889), gaucho, industrialist, banker, politician, who controlled eight of the ten largest companies in the country, being considered the patron of national entrepreneurs.

Withdrawn in October 2011 for the construction of the Rio450 Tunnel and the demolition of the Perimetral Elevate, on February 27, 2015 it was returned to the revamped Praça Mauá, positioned between the Museums of Tomorrow and Art of Rio.

Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, viscount of Mauá (Arroio Grande, December 28, 1813 – Petrópolis, October 21, 1889, was a merchant, shipowner, industrial and banker Brazilian. Throughout his life he was worthy, for his contribution to the industrialization of the Brazil in the Empire period (1822-1889), of the nobility titles first of baron (1854) and after Viscount de Mauá (1874).

He was a pioneer in several areas of the Brazilian economy. Among his greatest achievements is the implementation of the first iron foundry and shipyard in the country, the construction of the first Brazilian railroad, the Mauá railroad in the city of Magé, in the current state of Rio de Janeiro, the beginning of the exploration of the Amazon River and its tributaries, as well as the Guaíba and its tributaries, in Rio Grande do Sul, with steam boats, the installation of gas public lighting in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the creation of the third Bank of Brazil (the first, from 1808 , materialized in 1829 the possibility existing in its statute of dissolving at the end of 20 years), and the installation of the submarine telegraphic cable between South America and Europe.

First as baron, a title received after building the first railway in South America, and twenty years later, Viscount of Mauá, Irineu Evangelista de Sousa is the main representative of the beginnings of capitalism in South America, by incorporating and adopting, in the Brazil, still in the period of the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889), in its companies, the resources and machinery applied in Europe and in the United States in the period of the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century.

He is considered, by historical records, as the first great Brazilian industrialist. He was one of the great opponents of slavery and the slave trade, understanding that only through free trade and free workers with income could Brazil achieve a situation of prosperity. However, only with the Lei Áurea, of 1888, slavery was abolished in Brazil, signed by the princess regent Isabel.

Born into a family of small ranch owners in Arroio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, on the border with the Republic of Uruguay, Irineu Evangelista de Sousa rose socially through his own merits, studies and initiative, being considered one of the entrepreneurs most important in Brazil in the 19th century, being at the forefront of major initiatives and structuring works related to economic progress in the Segundo Reinado.

Initially misunderstood and contested by a rural and slave society, today it is considered the symbol of 19th century Brazilian capitalist entrepreneurs. He was a precursor, in Brazil, of economic liberalism, defender of the abolition of slavery, the valorization of labor and investment in technology. At the height of his career (1860), he controlled seventeen companies located in six countries (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, England, France and the United States). In the consolidated balance sheet of its companies in 1867, the total value of assets was estimated at 115 thousand contos de réis[6] (155 million pounds sterling), while the Empire’s budget, in the same year, amounted to 97 thousand contos de réis ( 97 million pounds sterling). His biography became known, mainly, for the exposition of reasons that he presented to creditors and the public when his bank, Casa Mauá & Cia., decreed in 1878, went bankrupt.

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Visconde de Mauá Monument

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