Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

All

News

Sport

Culture

Lifestyle

This photo provided by the Brazilian Federal Justice shows a building in Fordlandia, Para, Brazil (Brazilian Federal Justice via AP)

A Brazilian court has ordered federal and local authorities to restore and preserve Fordlandia, the ambitious Amazonian city founded nearly a century ago by U.S. industrialist Henry Ford .

Fordlandia was established in 1927 by the Ford Motor Company in Brazil 's northern state of Pará, conceived as a rubber-tapping metropolis to secure a steady supply of natural rubber for tires, designed to mimic an idyllic American suburb.

Once the third-largest settlement in the Amazon, the venture ultimately failed as disease ravaged rubber tree plantations, leading to its abandonment, with the Brazilian government acquiring the site in 1945.

The legal battle for its preservation began in 2015 when Brazil’s federal prosecutors’ office sued…