Tá ouvindo o trem? a reapropriação do patrimônio ferroviários nas feiras livres da Paraíba: o caso de Itabaiana

Abstract

This research deals with the influence of two transformative phenomena in the northeastern urban space in the 19th and 20th centuries: street markets and the train. Historically, street markets were one of the essential economic activities for the occupation of the national territory, paving the way for the growth of hitherto isolated areas and preceding the implementation of railway transport, as a strong ally in the economic growth of popularly known urban centers. “road junctions”. With the arrival of the railway, cities became stages of urban transformations that affected not only the urban landscape, but the customs and daily lives of their inhabitants. These impacts affected the largest and most dynamic urban centers in the world, as well as small provinces and villages in Brazilian territory, such as the municipality of Itabaiana, our research object. The city of Itabaiana has a historical tradition with important cattle fairs and its trade was boosted after the arrival of the train. After the railway decline and the rise of road transport, the city started to appropriate the railway heritage as a way of improving the activities of market traders, which runs the risk of suffering a loss of character in the local urban context. Therefore, this present work aims to investigate the reappropriation of the railway heritage of the city of Itabaiana, located in the countryside of Paraíba, in the context of the central free market. Its aim is to memorialize the influence of railway heritage on the urbanization of cities in Paraíba, as well as the preservation of local memories of transforming agents at railway stations.