[3][4][5] John VI, king of Portugal, mandated the creation of the Real Trem de Guerra in Cuiabá in a Royal Charter of April 18, 1818.

Cuiabá maintained a strategic position in the 19th century due to Spanish territorial disputes at the end of its rule over the Viceroyalty of Peru, and later the emergence of the independent states of Paraguay (1811), and more distantly, Argentina (1810).

The decree gave specific instructions for its design and operation to be based entirely on the Real Trem of the Captaincy of São Paulo.

It was completed in 1832 under the newly-formed government of the Empire of Brazil in response to the territorial disputes in the Platine regions, which included Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.

The Arsenal rose to full importance during the Paraguayan War (1864-1870) as a center for weapons manufacture and repair.

However, on May 7 Generoso Ponce, at the head of 4,000 men, began the siege of the opposing forces in the capital and dominated them in less than a week.

The market is designated a "bulixo", a local Cuiabá name for emporiums that sold miscellaneous goods.

Other examples are found in the façade of the Headquarters of the 1st Battalion of Military Police of Mato Grosso and the Fountain of Mundéu.

The flat areas of the façade are painted in ocher with reliefs in white; the color scheme accentuates the composition and classic linearity of the building.

The military history of the building is preserved in the frieze of the arsenal, which has the insignia of the Casa Militar in symmetrical reliefs.

A spatial lattice was designed by Ademar Poppi and "gains in lightness over the squat figure of the Market.