On March 18, 1818, Dom João VI issued a Decree approving the creation of that hospital. This is how the construction of the 1st hydrothermal fountain in Brazil was started, following the guidelines of Caldas da Rainha Thermal Hospital, located less than 100 km from Lisbon, Portugal, which was founded in 1485 by Queen Dona Leonor. This hospital is considered the oldest operating hospital in the world.
     The construction of the hospital in Caldas da Imperatriz did not start immediately, mainly due to the large indigenous presence in the region. Only 24 years later, on March 18, 1842, under Law No. 164, the Provincial Assembly determined the construction of Government resources, donations and lotteries. In the year of 1844 also receive resources of the Government, including with an expressive contribution of the Empress Dona Teresa Cristina. On this occasion she accepted to receive the title of "Protector of the Hospital de Caldas" and allowing the denomination to become Caldas da Imperatriz.
     It is also in the 2nd Reign that efforts are intensifying for the construction of a national identity project. On September 14, 1845, after a session of the Legislative General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro, Dom Pedro II announced his desire to know the provinces of the Empire, with the purpose of making the population feel the first two needs of the Nation: order and justice . Thus, due to a series of political issues and the end of the Farroupilha Revolution, in October of that year he and his wife Imperatriz Dona Teresa Cristina travel to the south of the country towards the province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul; with visits to other places including Desterro and Caldas da Imperatriz: the first official trip of the imperial couple.
     Dom Pedro II and the delegation that accompanied him embark on the ship Imperatriz with a fleet composed by eight ships. They landed in Desterro on October 12, 1845 where they stay for 18 days. In this period among the various commitments the imperial couple knows the Imperial Hospital of Charity, public offices, schools, and localities such as Lagoa, Ribeirão and Santo Antônio. On the 29th, the journey to Caldas begins: the imperial delegation embarks to São José where have lunch at the residence of Colonel Joaquim Xavier Neves, and then travel on horseback towards Sant`Anna, now Santo Amaro da Imperatriz, where have dinner. The route to Caldas was specially prepared to receive the passage of the emperors including being adorned with fig trees planted for that occasion. In the sequence they crosses the river Cubatão and continues the trip until Caldas da Imperatriz where they arrives at around 7 o`clock pm. The emperors were welcomed with a supper and stayed in the main building (in the bedroom that currently corresponds to the room number 33 of Caldas da Imperatriz Hotel). The next day the couple visited the works of the thermal hospital and surroundings and was satisfied with what they saw. Dom Pedro II occupied himself for some time with thermometric observations in several sources of waters, as well as with conversations in that respect. At that time the baths had not yet been installed. Among the delicacies offered to the Court during the stay were served natural foods that best represented the taste and production of the region, with traditional recipes that persist to the present day. At 8 o`clock on the 31st, the imperial delegation left the hospital and continued their journey towards Rio Grande do Sul. That visit to Caldas da Imperatriz happened after more than 27 years since Dom João VI, grandfather of Dom Pedro II, signed the Decree approving the creation of the hospital. It should also be noted that for all events and visits to the Province a large receptive apparatus was prepared, and in all of them the imperial couple was greeted effusively by the people.
     For years the hospital worked alternating stable periods and decline, being that by 1920 it had a great renovation and was transformed into a hotel. In general it kept the original architectural lines and preserved the old Carrara marble bathtubs, brought from Italy and donated by Empress Teresa Cristina. Currently the building is established as Caldas da Imperatriz Hotel, being opened to the public and tourists throughout the year. It belongs to the company Hidro Caldas - Companhia Hidromineral Caldas da Imperatriz, which is administratively linked to the Municipality of Santo Amaro da Imperatriz. It is located in the mesoregion of Great Florianópolis and approximately 30 km away from the Atlantic Ocean. It is located within Tabuleiro Highlands State Park, is covered by preserved Atlantic Forest and is part of the southern of Do Mar Highlands. Its thermal waters have a constant temperature of 39.8°C (equivalent to 32°Réaumur), contains the presence of radio, are colorless and free of taste or odor and have qualities recognized worldwide.
     
In this regard, in the following video (Portuguese language) Juliano Souza da Silva, lawyer and researcher, reports some of the historical facts that marked the history of Caldas da Imperatriz.


     Nature rarely meets the geomorphological formations necessary to provide the emergence of hot springs: the warm waters that emerge from the depths of the earth with unique qualities. From a general point of view hot springs are the result of waters that transpose the Earth layers, they cross long and imprecise paths to the surface, bringing with them physical and chemical properties given by the regions where they are generated and differentiated by the elements that compose them: organic and inorganic compounds, such as non-metals such as sulfur and even radioactive metals with a higher or lower half-life such as the alkaline-earth radio and thorium and rare earth actinium.
     It must be taken into account that the particularities acquired come from specific conditions but generally they form a cycle that can last hundreds of years: 1) by gravity the water from the atmosphere is fed to groundwater through infiltrations resulting from geological faults; 2) are heated by contact with geothermal heat sources, deep-melting magmas; 3) return under heavy pressure through tunnels spontaneously sculpted by nature that ensure their conduction to the surface; 4) reach the surface with new properties, and in contact with the atmosphere release an extensive range of chemical elements, fruits of the processes occurred inside the Earth. The physical characteristics of the region where this cycle occurs will determine the identity of the water from each source.
     On March 18, 2018 we commemorate 200 years since Dom João VI signed the Decree approving the creation of the Caldas da Imperatriz Hospital, and more than 172 years since the imperial visit of Dona Teresa Cristina and Dom Pedro II to that place. Many are the facts that have marked the history of these hot springs: from the battles for possession of the land and sources, to the countless benefits offered to the people who came there. Generations and generations have passed since then, and the fountains remain unharmed, providing the best quality of water, immaculate in their mission of softening human pains; pains that afflict their bodies, their minds and their spirits, and bring relief to those who need it.
     The historic building has been renovated and expanded. Nowadays as a Thermal Hotel it still retains in the present the traces of a time that also remains unchanged: guard in masonry, in architectural lines, in stones, in stairs, in walls and floors, in rooms and bedrooms, in windows and doors, and in the old marble baths much of the power that it has promised to offer. In an environment of pure air surrounded by plants and native forests set among the rolling mountains of Tabuleiro Highlands, and clear waters that descend on the stones of the contiguous Águas Claras stream, and the numerous species of birds and wild animals that there they inhabit a scene of sounds and silences that describe feelings: genuine feelings of hope credited to their healing waters; past and future feelings that will resonate forever and ever as a living memory of those whom their lives entrusted to them.

     It is from this perspective that this photographic project was designed. Held during the year 2017 and beginning of 2018, the scenario was the environment that involves the history of the thermal waters and the facilities of the former hospital; a place with unusual energy, which has been part of my life for almost thirty years. There are many personal memories that I have had since the childhood of my children, when on some Saturday mornings we left Florianópolis to Caldas to take baths in the thermal baths, and taste the delicious local gastronomy. Facts that mark the life of my family and reasons that contributed much to make this work, however, were also challenging in a certain way. This is because a more comprehensive look had to be developed: a look that captures the atmosphere and the feelings that I perceive materialized everywhere. In addition the work was enriched with images granted by my friend Juliano Souza da Silva: from newspapers and historical photographs, which are part of his researches on the history of Caldas da Imperatriz, as well as his trip to the Queen Dona Leonor Termal Hospital in Portugal in May, 2017.
     Caldas da Imperatriz is a living heritage of our history ... from the history of Santa Catarina and Brazil! A jewel that prides the people of Santo Amaro da Imperatriz: people who have relentlessly dedicated themselves to preserving this magnificent thermal heritage; people to whom I have the honor to dedicate this photographic exhibition in commemoration of its 200 years!