Vinicius de Moraes’ Literary Places

Alberto Roiphe (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Born on October 19, 1913, at 114 Lopes Quintas Street, in the Gávea neighbourhood, next to his maternal grandfather’s country house, the poet, columnist, playwright, film critic, and lyricist of Bossa Nova songs Vinicius de Moraes lived in several areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro in addition to this address.

Between 1916 and 1922, the family moved several times within the Botafogo neighbourhood, making it possible to trace an itinerary through the poet’s childhood and adolescence: 192 Voluntários da Pátria Street; 100 Passagem Street (while he attended the Afrânio Peixoto primary school, located on Matriz Street); 127 19 de Fevereiro Street; 130 Real Grandeza Street; 195 Voluntários da Pátria Street; until the family relocated to Ilha do Governador, at 109-A Cocotá Beach, according to the chronology outlined by the literary critic Eucanaã Ferraz (Moraes, 2004, p. 51).

Vinicius de Moraes, however, maintained his ties with the Botafogo neighbourhood, receiving his first communion there in 1923, at the parish church on Voluntários da Pátria Street. Soon afterward, he began his secondary education in 1924 at Santo Inácio School, located on São Clemente Street, where he joined the choir and started writing, in collaboration with classmates, the epic The Academics (Os acadêmicos) and songs such as “Blonde or Brunette” (“Loura ou morena”) and “Song of the Night” (“Canção da noite”), considered his first literary productions and equally important references in an itinerary through the neighbourhood. At this same institution, in 1929, he completed his studies in Languages and Literature (Moraes, 2004, p. 52). That same year, the family left Ilha do Governador and returned to the residence adjacent to his birthplace on Lopes Quintas Street, which has since been demolished.

The itinerary extends to the Catete neighbourhood, where the poet attended law school during the 1930s, on Catete Street itself, a period in which he also published his first book, The Path to the Distance (O caminho para a distância). His productions expanded, and the itinerary expanded even further in the following decades, considering the creation of his first samba, both lyrics and melody, “When You Pass by Me” (“Quando tu passas por mim”), and the play Orpheus of the Conception (Orfeu da Conceição), written in partnership with Antônio Carlos Jobim and staged at the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro, another site in the city that can still be visited today.

In partnership with Antônio Carlos Jobim, and with the participation of singer and guitarist João Gilberto, Vinicius de Moraes helped launch the movement that renewed Brazilian popular music and became known internationally as Bossa Nova, whose inaugural landmark was the samba “Enough of Longing” (“Chega de Saudade”) [Although this song became internationally known as “No More Blues,” the translation “Enough of Longing” is adopted here to preserve the semantic meaning of the Portuguese title].

In the 1960s, he moved from the Copacabana neighbourhood to Gávea, Jardim Botânico, Leblon, and Ipanema (Campos, 2013; Homem & La Rosa, 2013). During this period, in collaboration with guitarist and composer Baden Powell, he began the series of Afro-Sambas, including “Berimbau” and “Ossanha’s Chant” (“Canto de Ossanha”) (Homem & La Rosa, 2013, p. 188).

Because of his many relocations, the poet described himself as “a nomad, due to the contingencies of his profession” (Rangel, 2021, p. 85, my translation).

Considering the different perspectives on museums and literary houses, it is important to revisit the origins of “Casa di Vina,” the poet’s residence in Salvador, Bahia. The name, given to Vinicius de Moraes’s home by his friends, referred to the house where the poet lived with actress Gessy Gesse during the 1970s, in the Itapoã neighbourhood. Vinicius himself, however, called the residence the “Free and Autonomous Principality of Itapuã” (Principado Livre e Autônomo de Itapuã) (Roiphe, 2024). Transformed into a hotel in 2000, when the house was incorporated into the neighbouring property, the site now houses the Casa di Vina Memorial, which is open to the public and preserves personal objects, photographs of the couple, and some of the poet’s compositions.

It is in Rio de Janeiro that a large part of his manuscripts and sound recordings are preserved, particularly at the Rui Barbosa House Foundation (Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa) and at the Museum of Image and Sound (Museu da Imagem e do Som).

Vinicius de Moraes’s biography also includes important works that reveal the relationship between his creative process and urban spaces. One of them is the film about the life of the artist Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho, produced by the poet in 1952 in collaboration with his cousins Humberto and José Francheschi, following an itinerary through the historic cities of Minas Gerais where the sculptor’s works are located. Another work is the symphonic poem Symphony of Dawn (Sinfonia da Alvorada), composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim in tribute to Brasília, the new capital of Brazil, inaugurated in 1960, for which Vinicius wrote the lyrics. Another particularly significant work is Lyrical and Sentimental Guide to the City of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (Roteiro lírico e sentimental da Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro), a collection of texts devoted specifically to Rio de Janeiro. Although written by the poet, the manuscript was lost on an aeroplane in 1979 while he was returning from a trip to Europe (Homem & La Rosa, 2013, p. 191). The work was later published posthumously and only in part, in an edition organised by the literary critic José Castello.

While the city of Rio de Janeiro permeates his entire oeuvre, this work presents a sequence of poems that reveal places the poet frequented. Among them is “Lopes Quintas (the street where I was born)” (“Lopes Quintas (a rua onde nasci)”), which mentions his grandfather’s house in the Gávea neighbourhood. Another poem is “The Lover of the Streets” (“O namorado das ruas”), in which he describes his wanderings through streets bearing female names (Alice, Conceição, Lucília, Bambina, Maria Quitéria…). The final street mentioned in the poem is Joana Angélica, one of his addresses on Ipanema Beach, at the corner of Vieira Souto Avenue, where a commemorative plaque honouring the poet still stands. The work also includes poems dedicated to different neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, frequently portrayed throughout the poet’s oeuvre,  such as “Copacabana,” “Ballad of Botafogo” (“Balada de Botafogo”), “Praia do Pinto,” and “Lapa de Bandeira,” the latter referring to the writer Manuel Bandeira, as well as testimonies by the poet himself about places he frequented: “Villarino, Vermelhinho, Jucas’s Bar, Lamas. Much later, Veloso and Antonio’s Bar. Rio visited through its bohemian bars and restaurants” (Moraes, 2001, p. 90, my translation).

These latter references are essential to understanding the creative process not only of the poet, who also worked as a diplomat, but also of the intellectual and artistic circles with whom he interacted, including writers such as Rubem Braga and Moacyr Werneck de Castro, as well as young architects and visual artists of the period, among them Oscar Niemeyer, Carlos Leão, Afonso Reidy, Jorge Moreira, José Reis, Alfredo Ceschiatti, Santa Rosa, Pancetti, Augusto Rodrigues, Djanira, and Bruno Giorgi. Both Casa Villarino, located at the corner of Calógeras Avenue and Presidente Wilson Avenue in downtown Rio de Janeiro, and Café Lamas, on Marquês de Abrantes Street in the Flamengo neighbourhood, still exist today. Regarding Antonio’s specifically, formerly located on Bartolomeu Mitre Street in the Leblon neighbourhood, Paulo Mendes Campos observes that it “was the third home (for some, the second) of the group (…) Literature: Braga, Sabino, Carlinhos de Oliveira. And it was there that the musicians (Tom, Chico, Toquinho, and all the others) would meet Vinicius” (Campos, 2013, p. 220, my translation). In this sense, the venue itself became an integral part of the creative process of its regular patrons.

Among these spaces is also the Garota [de Ipanema] restaurant, located at 49 Vinicius de Moraes Street, today named in honour of the poet. In The History of Rio de Janeiro (A História do Rio de Janeiro), Armelle Enders recounts that “in 1963, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, seated at a table in the Velloso bar, on Montenegro Street in Ipanema, paid tribute through a song to Heloísa Eneida Paes Pinto Mendes Pinheiro, known as Helô Pinheiro. This was “The Girl from Ipanema” (“Garota de Ipanema”), described as “the object of thousands of versions in every language and rhythm around the world, and which lent its name to the Velloso bar, on the street that, since the poet’s death, has been called Vinicius de Moraes Street” (Enders, 2015, p. 274, my translation).

Retracing an author’s creative itinerary, including the houses, cafés, restaurants, and other places they frequented, seems, in terms of literary tourism, to help bridge the gap between the moment of literary creation and the moment of reading. As João Adolfo Hansen (2019) argues, this process involves the recognition of symbolic conventions, the appropriation of the cultural realities embedded in the text, the formulation of hypotheses, the examination of different structures and styles of literary genres, and the observation of norms of social regulation, among many other interpretative practices performed by active readers.

How to cite this entry: Roiphe, A. (2026). Vinicius de Moraes’ Literary Places. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.), E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59

References

Campos, P. M. (2013). O mais estranho dos países: Crônicas e perfis. Companhia das Letras.

Enders, A. (2015). A história do Rio de Janeiro (3rd ed.). Gryphus.

Hansen, J. A. (2019). O que é um livro? Ateliê Editorial & Sesc.

Homem, W., & La Rosa, B. de. (2013). Histórias de canções: Vinicius de Moraes. Leya.

Moraes, V. de. (2001). Roteiro lírico e sentimental da cidade do Rio de Janeiro e outros lugares por onde passou e se encantou o poeta (J. Castello, Ed.). Companhia das Letras.

Moraes, V. de. (2004). Poesia completa e prosa (4th ed., E. Ferraz, Ed.). Nova Aguilar.

Rangel, M. L. (Ed.). (2021). Vinicius por Vinicius: Um retrato em 150 frases. Companhia das Letras.

Roiphe, A. (2024). Turismo literário: Sobre cidades e escritores. Folhas de Relva.