Sítio do Físico
19th-century ruins.
Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joraga jo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aretha Ramos — CC BY-SA 3.0
Bacanga State Park is a protected area in São Luís, Maranhão, created by decree on 2 March 1980 on the right bank of the Bacanga river south of the city. One of its aims is to protect the Amazon forest whose springs feed the Batatã reservoir, one of São Luís's main water sources, supplying about 30 per cent of the capital. It holds mangroves in tidal coastal areas and cocais forest with buriti and babaçu palms, and its wildlife includes sloths, agoutis and birds such as the yellow woodpecker. It suffers degradation, though, from illegal occupation, logging and dumping in a densely populated surrounding area. The park contains the ruins of the Sítio do Físico industrial complex, one of Maranhão's main industrial sites in the early 19th century, with its tanneries, furnaces, tanks and warehouses over some 1,600 square metres; the nearby mangroves supplied the tannin used to tan leather. Check visitor trails.
19th-century ruins.
And forest.
City water.
South of São Luís, Maranhão
The ruins of an early-19th-century tanning complex inside the park.