The Japan Times - Brazil's Amazonia theaters earn UNESCO World Heritage status

The two buildings, located in the cities of Belem and Manaus respectively, are a legacy of the Amazon region's "Golden Age," the United Nations agency said.

Both played a significant role in the Amazon's rubber boom in the late 19th and early 20th century, it added.

This period, running from 1879 to 1912, brought unprecedented economic wealth to the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest.

But historians point out that the boom also brought forced labor to the region, which decimated the Amazon's Indigenous populations.

"These ensembles were designed as symbols of political and urban ambition," UNESCO said when listing the French architecture-inspired buildings as world heritage.

UNESCO recognition extends to the theatres' respective public squares, Praca da Republica and Largo de Sao Sebastiao.

"The Theatro da Paz and the Praca da Republica asserted the strategic role of the city of Belem as a port and State capital," it stated.

The Teatro Amazonas was meanwhile "part of the large-scale urban development of Manaus during the rubber boom."

Y.Hara--JT