Qualla: New Coimbra Fort https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: New Coimbra Fort https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort New Coimbra Fort: Introduction https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort/ Photo credit G. Y. Aquino, Public domain. When one of its officers is promoted to general, no matter where in Brazil they serve, tradition requires them to send a gold star from their epaulettes back to the shrine of the Virgin of Carmel inside Fort Coimbra. It is a small gesture that speaks to something larger: this fortress on the Paraguay River, founded in 1775 and still garrisoned by the Brazilian Army, has accumulated nearly 250 years of loyalty, siege, abandonment, and reconstruction. Its walls have been shattered by Paraguayan artillery and rebuilt. Its guns have been captured and replaced. Its name has changed -- from Presidio de Coimbra to New Coimbra Fort to Fort Portocarrero -- but the place endures, perched on a hill where the river narrows and two long stretches of water meet at an obtuse angle.

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Image: G. Y. Aquino | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/6sqy-new-coimbra-fort-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full New Coimbra Fort: A Frontier Drawn in Stone https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort/ Photo credit Rubens Costa Marques, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fort exists because of a line on a map. The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 attempted to settle the borders between Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America, and Portugal needed physical markers to enforce its claims in the remote interior of Mato Grosso. Bandeirantes fro...

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Image: Rubens Costa Marques | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/6sqy-new-coimbra-fort-a-frontier-drawn-in-stone.mp3 0:06 2 full New Coimbra Fort: Forty-Two Against Six Hundred https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort/ Photo credit Srđan Popović, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fort's most improbable defense came in September 1801, when it was still under construction. A Paraguayan expedition of four schooners and two canoes carrying 600 men arrived to assert Spanish territorial claims under the Treaty of Madrid. The fort encroached on what Spain co...

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Image: Srđan Popović | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/6sqy-new-coimbra-fort-forty-two-against-six-hundred.mp3 0:06 3 full New Coimbra Fort: The Night the Fort Fell Silent https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort/ Photo credit B. Rondon, Public domain. The fort's most dramatic chapter came on December 27, 1864, when the Paraguayan War opened with a massive assault on Coimbra. Colonel Vicente Barrios commanded 3,200 men -- five infantry battalions, two dismounted cavalry regiments, twelve rifled guns, a French-equipped rocket ba...

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Image: B. Rondon | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/6sqy-new-coimbra-fort-the-night-the-fort-fell-silent.mp3 0:06 4 full New Coimbra Fort: Stone Walls and Living Memory https://qualla.com/new-coimbra-fort/ Photo credit Centro de Comunicação Social do Exército, Public domain. After the war ended in 1870, the fort was rebuilt from near-total destruction -- its walls had been almost completely shattered by artillery fire. Between 1907 and 1908, two 120mm Armstrong guns from the ironclad Barroso were mounted on its ramparts. New quarters rose beside the ...

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Image: Centro de Comunicação Social do Exército | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/q/y/new-coimbra-fort-wp/6sqy-new-coimbra-fort-stone-walls-and-living-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full