This lagoon — known as Lagoa do Boqueirão — was polluted and bred diseases, and its elimination was considered a major improvement in the urban conditions of Rio.

Master Valentim planned a park in the French formal garden style, in the shape of an irregular hexagon, using straight pathways arranged in a geometrical and symmetrical form.

The park was originally encircled by a stone wall and was mostly used by Rio's high colonial society, but after 1793 it was opened to the general public.

The bronze statues of Master Valentim were the first to be cast in Rio, and are a precocious representation of autochthonous fauna (caimans, egrets), which would become widespread in the Romantic Brazilian art of the 19th century.

Between 1785 and 1790, the pavilions of the Passeio Público were decorated with oval paintings by one of Master Valentim's collaborators, the painter Leandro Joaquim.

Glaziou greatly altered the original design by Valentim, following the English Garden style, which attempts to recreate a 'natural' landscape.

The geometrical arrangement of the Passeio Público gave way to a labyrinth of winding pathways, with a lake, bridge and different plant species.