In 1711, Mayor Eduardo Paes decided to expropriate an 18th century cannonball used during the French invasion of Rio de Janeiro, then still a Portuguese colony. Led by the privateer René Duguay-Trouin (1663-1736), they defeated the city’s defenses. Homes and commercial stores were looted and looted. In order not to completely destroy Rio, which then had only 12,000 inhabitants, René demanded the payment of a ransom: 600 kilos of gold, 200 oxen, slaves, money among others.
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The cannonball was discovered in the 1950s, during excavations near the São Bento Monastery, by geologist Antonio Carlos Muniz. He disappeared for years until he was found thanks to an advertisement in an auction and antiques store in Campinas (SP). The item had already been purchased by a collector for R$2,205.
“The cannonball, as a vestigial artifact from the French invasion of 1711, is part of the concept of Brazilian cultural heritage because it refers to the identity, action and memory of the groups that formed society,” explained Paes, in the expropriation decree.
Spherical in shape, with an approximate diameter of 17 cm and a weight of 14.93 kg, the object bears an identification mark: an inscription engraved with the word “FRANCE”.
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