Camille Monfort (1869-1896) had (or… has?) an otherworldly beauty that allegedly inspired irresistible desires in the rich gentlemen of the region and atrocious jealousy in their wives. She was a social climber who was imported from France to perform at the Theatro de Paz. Ms. Monfort (who also went by Camila Monfort) challenged many conventions and mores in Brazil. She is renowned as a free spirit. At a time when women were often expected to be sheltered and deferential, she was the opposite. Camille’s income from singing and gifts from suitors allowed her to live free from conventional social expectations. Camila was neither silent nor reserved – she used her voice to project her own outgoing image on stage and off.
Iconoclast or monster?
Legend has it that when it rained in Belém, Ms Monfort was seen half-naked and dancing in the streets. She often walked alone at night, which simply wasn’t done by a respectable woman (the term “streetwalker” had a very salacious meaning). Camille Monfort also roused curiosity for her fashion. She wore long, black, and vaporous dresses under the full moon, promenading on the banks of the Guajará River.
Dark rumors circulated around her, and much of the gossip was malicious. Francisco Bolonha (1872-1938) was said to be one of her lovers. Supposedly, he had brought her from Europe and he doused her with expensive imported champagnes in the bathtub of his mansion. It was also said that she had been attacked by vampires in London. Rumors suggested that vampirism caused her paleness and sickly appearance.
There were few tales of Vampirism in the Amazon before this time, so was Camille Monfort the first South American vampire? Some claimed that her mesmerizing voice hypnotized young women at her concerts. After singing to them, she would take advantage of the sleeping maidens in her dressing room. This rumor coincided with reports of nubile fans fainting in the theater during her concerts.
Spiritualism in Brazil
In hindsight, the combination of excitement, tight corsets, and motionless indoor air likely caused this fainting. Yet wagging tongues quickly assigned sinister motives. It was also said that Mrs. Monfort had the power to communicate with the dead and materialize their spirits into dense ethereal mists. This was the height of the Medium movement in Victorian England, and the creation of ectoplasmic eruptions was a fashionable new trend. Spiritualism had not yet spread widely into South America. Spiritualists were only found in a few avant gard cults in Belém palaces.
Few of these Spiritualist havens survive. One of the few is the Palacete Pinho. Also known as Pinho Mansion, this historic building has been located at 586 Doutor Assis Street in the Cidade Velha district, in Belém, the capital of the state of Pará. Built during the height of the rubber cycle prosperity in 1897, it was listed as a national heritage site by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) in 1986. Restoration was completed in 2011. The building is now available for tourists to experience the opulence and style of this vanished Brazilian Gilded Age.
The tomb of Camille Monfort
Miss Monfort never lived to see Palacento Pinho. At the end of 1896, cholera struck the city of Belém. So many people died that it was easy to lose track of names, and mass graves were built. Camille Monfort disappeared around this time; possibly a victim of cholera, or possibly using it to wrap up one chapter of her life. Her body is supposedly buried in the Cemetery of Solitude.
Today, her tomb can be found only by the adventurous. It is fading back into the earth, covered in slime, moss, and fallen leaves. A huge mango tree shades Camille Monfort’s mausoleum, with only the strongest rays of sunlight penetrating through the canopy of thick emerald leaves. Her memorial is a neoclassical white marble mausoleum with the traditional rusted iron gate and lock. A generic female bust juts out on the wide lid of the almost forgotten tomb. There’s also a more lively image framed and attached to the wall, showing the fading memory of this mysterious woman in black.
On her tombstone is the inscription: “Here lies Camila María Monfort (1869-1896) The voice that captivated the world.” The wealth of the rubber plantations gave her a lavish life, but her afterlife is what continues to capture the imagination. If she moved on without leaving this world, perhaps she is still taking champagne baths with a new paramour at the age of 155.