Memorial da Cabanagem, Monument in Belém, Brazil

The Memorial da Cabanagem is a 15-metre-high, 20-metre-long reinforced concrete monument designed by Oscar Niemeyer, standing in the Entroncamento road complex in Belém. It takes the form of a steep ramp rising toward the sky, with a fracture where a separate block lies on the ground. The monument is closed to public visitation.

The Memorial da Cabanagem was inaugurated on 7 January 1985, the 150th anniversary of the Cabanagem, a revolt in the province of Grão-Pará during the imperial era. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer at the request of governor Jader Barbalho and built in four months by the Secretaria de Estado de Viação e Obras Públicas, led by engineer Manoel Acácio. In 1997 mayor Edmílson Rodrigues ordered it cleaned and restored.

The monument points toward the village of Icoaraci, where many cabano fighters were killed and buried. Its concrete forms carry Niemeyer's reading of the revolt: the rising ramp as the popular uprising nearing its goals, the fallen block as the revolutionary process broken off. The memorial is closed to public visitation and has been vandalized and used as a skate ramp.

The monument stands in the Entroncamento road complex and is closed to public visitation, so it can only be seen from outside. It is occasionally misused as a skate ramp, and the structure has suffered break-ins, graffiti and vandalism. View it from the surrounding platform and water's edge rather than planning an interior visit.

The intentional break in the ascending ramp is a symbolic architectural choice representing the interrupted nature of the historical movement itself. This design feature transforms the memorial into a physical representation of the story it preserves.