OUR LADY OF LIGHT OF THE PINES

SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION OF THE HISTORY OF CURITIBA

Abstract

In this article we make an interpretative reading of the history of Curitiba, distinguishing four
phases of the composition of the municipality as corresponding to the four sacred iconographies
of its patroness. We present the course of urban development based on the imagery of Our Lady
of Light of the Pines as symbolic illustration of each snip of time, but, above all, as an icon
inspirational in the configuration of the phases of social life. Thus, we propose that the feeling
of marian devotion, expressed in the religious aesthetics of each period, influenced the course
of the city, from its foundation to the present.