🏛️ Bibi Costa Mansion

The Bibi Costa Mansion, also known as José Júlio de Andrade Mansion, or simply O Castelinho, is a historic residence in Belém, Pará, Brazil. It was built for José Júlio de Andrade (1862–1953), a politician, merchant, and plantation owner, and completed in 1906 by in "record time" to welcome the president of Brazil, Afonso Pena, to Belém. The mansion is part of a set of large homes built in Belém in the eclecticism during the Amazonian "rubber cycle" in the early 20th century. It is now owned by the Waterway Administration of the Eastern Amazon of the Federal Government of Brazil. It was listed as a historic structure by the Department of Historic, Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Pará in 2002. It is now considered an "icon" of Brazil's belle époque eclectic architecture in Belém. The residence was built by the engineer Francisco Bolonha (1872–1938) who built numerous buildings for the government of Belém in the early 20th century. The mansion is also noted for Bolonha's pioneering use of reinforced concrete, which was largely unknown in either Brazil or Belém in the period.