Part of the building that housed the traditional Colon Restaurant, in Salvador, collapsed this Thursday morning (25), one day after being closed by the city's Civil Defense (Codesal). The mansion, in front of Praça Conde dos Arcos, in the Comércio neighborhood, was in an area listed by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan).
Famous for housing the establishment mentioned in the work “O Sumiço da Santa”, by Bahian writer Jorge Amado, the building was evacuated in 2020 after presenting structural problems due to lack of maintenance. The restaurant operated there for 106 years, and was considered the oldest in Salvador.
On Wednesday afternoon (24), Codesal had carried out a new inspection of the property and closed off the surrounding area precisely due to the risk of collapse.
The City of Salvador states that, still in 2020, the owner of the property was notified to suspend commercial activities until the risk was resolved and to carry out recovery and structural reinforcement services for the unstable parts, mainly on the last two upper floors.
With part of the mansion collapsing, Civil Defense said it requested support from the Municipal Department of Development and Urbanism (Sedur) for the demolition of the remaining parts, in common agreement with the deliberations of Iphan, which sent two technicians to the site.
In a statement, Iphan stated that it opened an inspection process in 2022 to investigate possible deterioration of the property and that, during the inspection, it found that the building was in a state of degradation.
“As it is a private property, the responsibility for conserving listed assets lies with their owners. Iphan has been contacting public bodies in order to obtain the names of the owners to adopt the appropriate measures, which may result in fines in the case of negligence. There was recent information about the name of the owner and the infraction notice is being issued in his name”, adds the agency.
Source: CNN Brasil
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