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João do Rio was an observer but also a symbol of the belle époque carioca and the biggest dandy of Brazilian literature.

Rio de Janeiro from João do Rio’s chronicles was a city going through an accelerated transformation. The bota-abaixo (meaning: bringing it all down) was inspired in the architecture of Paris; hundreds of buildings and old houses in the centre of Rio were brought down in order to free space for the construction of a huge avenue, the Avenida Central.

Images of empty streets and houses under the night sky compose the illustrations created by Waltercio Caldas for a recently published bilingual edition of João do Rio's “The enchanting soul of the streets”.