Stone pillars, tales of memory and the silence of history: the cult of the Rio de Janeiro’s founding stone.

The article approaches the relationship between historical relics and foundational narratives as it was configured by the emergence of the public museums and the heritage crusade since the 19th century. The focus is on artifacts and monuments made of stone that represented the distant genesis of collective identities, even in the absence of any documentary support and relying only on their age value. To do so, it relies on the concepts of museum magic, public memory and rituals of memory. Finally, it proposes a case study on the stone marker of the city of Rio de Janeiro (today under the care of the Capuchin friars of the Sanctuary of St. Sebastian, in the Tijuca neighborhood), seeking to reconstitute its “social life” and its role in the cult of city’s patron over time.

Key words:
Historical Monuments; Public Memory; Urban History