Fort Copacabana

The headland

A chapel on the headland gave way to a coastal fort in 1908

The fort stands on a headland that originally held a small chapel with a replica of the statue of Our Lady Copacabana. In 1908 the Brazilian army started to build a modern coastal defense fort there. It was completed in 1914.

The guns

Two armoured cupolas hold Krupp cannons of 305 mm and 190 mm

One cupola holds a pair of 305 mm Krupp cannons named Barroso and Osório, and the other a pair of 190 mm Krupp cannons. The 305 mm guns could fire a shell of some 445 kg up to a distance of 23 km.

23 kmthe range of a shell from the 305 mm guns

The revolt

In July 1922 rebel officers turned the fort's guns on the city

On 5 July 1922 the fort was the centre point of the Copacabana Fort revolt, the first revolt of the tenentista movement. The officers turned the fort's guns on Rio de Janeiro. On 6 July the battleship São Paulo bombarded the fort, which surrendered half an hour later.

Rare

Few heavy Krupp fortress cupolas remain in the world, and these are among them

Brazil disbanded its coastal defense artillery branch in 1987, and the fort was deactivated. Its cupolas, with those at nearby Fort Lage and Fort Imbui, are the only remaining heavy fortress cupolas of the Krupp design in the world, apart from one in Taranto.