Our starting point is the former Largo da Forca, now Praça da Liberdade, where public hangings were carried out — many of them of enslaved and rebellious Black people. Next, we will walk to the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Aflitos, one of the oldest in the city, with a hidden cemetery where the bodies of enslaved people and those sentenced to death were buried.

We continue through the narrow streets of the neighborhood, highlighting the transformations that the historical erasure brought about after the arrival of the Japanese community in the early 20th century. We will visit landmarks such as the headquarters of the Lavapés Samba School, a symbol of the permanence and resistance of black culture in the neighborhood, founded by black workers and residents of the area.

During the tour, we will also talk about little-remembered historical figures, black brotherhoods, tenements and urban quilombos, and the construction of the neighborhood's identity before its “Orientalization.” Each stop will be an invitation to reflect on how black memory was silenced — and how it can be recovered in the present.

This tour is an immersion in the forgotten layers of the city, where black culture resists amid the colorful storefronts and oriental lanterns. It's a unique opportunity to see Liberdade through different eyes — more critical, more human, and more truthful.
The tour ends at Paço dos Piques, now Ladeira da Memória, a stopping point for muleteers to give water to their horses at the fountain, which also served the enslaved.