I thought it would be fun to do an animated GIF image showing how Rio de Janeiro grew and changed in the last 440 years since it was founded in 1565. Well, it was a lot more work than I had imaged.

You can see the result here. It took me about 3 weeks to do this, based upon a lot of maps and a lot of guesses. I think its about 90% right at macro level, 50% correct regarding general growth parameters but only 10% accurate on details such as streets and buildings.

The history of the City of Rio de Janeiro is fairly well documented, but many details are only mentioned, not actually measured and located on a map. The size, shape and location of the marshes (mangues) and lagoons (lagoas) are major problems. Another difficulty is that the names of hills, beaches, island and streets have sometimes changed and then changed again, or they have been mislabeled. Anyway this Animated GIF image is composed of 22 overlays or sequential charts showing the urban growth, geographical changes and landfills over more than 400 years. I started with the 1830 map and then worked backwards and forward.

440 years of Rio

Click in the thumbnail for a guide to some of the place names and locations on the animated image above. In general terms, the urban expansion of Rio had five major phases, or better, components:
1. Draining and filling in the marshes around Rio. This is what initially happened... By 1700 the two lagoons (Lagoa da Lampadosa and Lagoa da Pavuna) behind the city had been filled in and occupied, ending also the small stream (Corrego das Pescadores) feeding from these lagoons and ending near Ilha das Cobras. Within 50 years (by 1750) the two Southern lagoons (Lagoa de Santo Antonio and Lagoa do Desterro) were also filled in, as well as the small inlet from the Bay known as Lagoa do Boqueirao (or Lagoa da Boqueirao da Ajuda). This was still there when the Lapa Arches were built in about 1750, and is visible in many paintings. The large low, marsh on the West side, known by a variety of terms (Lagoa da Sentinela, Lagoa de Capueruçu, Camboa Grande, Mangal de Sao Diogo, and later just "mangue") lasted over 300 years, until the late 19th century. The extent of this wetland region varied greatly, as is common for all marshes, depending on rainfall, drainage conditions, and human activities. The Lagoa da Sentinela is sometimes shown as a small, definite lake near what is now Cidade Nova, or sometimes it is closer to town, in the general area of what is now Bairro Fatima, just beyond the fortified city wall shown in the early 1700s. And again, sometimes it is just part of the big swamp also called Mangal de Sao Diogo.
2. Leveling hills. Next to dry land, the most desirable thing was level land. So the hills had to go. Probably the first hill to be moved was the Morro das Mangeiras, a small butte near what is now the south end of Morro do Desterro, in the Santa Thereza Hills, near the Lapa Arches. It was used to fill the Boqueirao Lagoon in the mid 18th Century, where the Passeio Publico park now stands. The next major hill to go was the Morro do Senado (Senate Hill, also one time called Morro de Pedro Dias) around 1910. Most of the Lapa district and Nem de Sa Avenue are built where this hill once existed. The earth from Senado Hill was used to build the new Port and Docks area on the North side. The next major hill to go was the most historic off all: Morro do Castelo, with its 16th Century buildings, was leveled in 1922. This was, in no uncertain terms, a crime. The Santo Antonio hill was the last major landmark to be removed, in the early 1960s, I believe.
3. Occuping the hill sides and mountains. Building on hills is a long established Carioca tradition. After all, the City was founded on a hill, on Morro de Castelo. Initially the hill tops were occupied by forts, churches and convents, particularly on the traditional four hills surrounding the historic center of Rio. These are: Morro do Castelo (Castle Hill), Morro de Sao Bento, Morro da Conceiçao and Morro de Santo Antonio (also called Morro do Carmo). It wasn't really until the late 1800s that people began seriously occupying the hillsides. This occurred in all areas, but I will only mention two places: the Santa Thereza district, the most famous, and the Morro da Favella (now called Morro da Formiga), which gave its name to the 'favela' or slums / shantytowns, an important Carioca institution.
4. Guanabara Bay landfills. Until 1900, landfills were only used to occupy the many swamps around Rio de Janeiro. For the most part, 500 years ago all level low land in what is now Rio was basically a big swamp, not only in the Downtown area, but also Botofogo, Copacabana, the Lagoa Rodrigues de Freita area, etc... In fact, in Rio, if it wasn't a hill or beach, it was a marsh. This low wetland (called alagadiço, mangue, mangal or even laguna or lagoa) covered all of center Rio, up to and around the hills. Starting early in the 1900s, the City government began using landfills to reclaim parts of Guanabara Bay for public use. This was a major undertaking, conducted on both the north and south sides of the city. On the north end a new, expanded port complex was built, which was mostly completed by 1920. Gone forever were many traditional beaches and landmarks such the Sacos (inlet) of Gamboa and Alferes, the beaches known as Formosa, Prainha, Vallongo and Vallonginho, as well as the islands of Moças (girls) or Caes (dogs) and Meloes (melons). On the south side of the city the landfill (aterro) process began in the 1920s, with dirt from Morro do Castelo, and continued through the 1980s. Initially the idea was that new lands would be used to build commercial / government buildings, but this was soon abandoned in favor of accommodating two new inventions: an airport for the the airplanes (Santos Dumont) and roads for the automobile as the Atlantic Ocean beaches were occupied in the early 1900s. The results was that all the old beaches on the south side (Praia de Santa Luzia, Praia das Freiras, Praia da Ajuda, Praia da Lapa, Praia da Gloria, Praia do Russell and Praia do Pedro) were covered by a landfill, initially behind a seawall (which still can be seen today in Urca) and later by gardens and parks. This landfill was so extensive that the Santa Luzia church, which was on the bay until about 1910, is now about a half of mile (800 meters) from the water, and the Island of Villegaignon, where Europeans first established themselves (French), which was 1 mile (1.6 Km) from the Ponta do Calabouço shore, is now linked by raod to the airport.
5. Demolition and building new avenues. I will only mention the big three. In the first years of the 20th century, about 1905, the City decided that old, historic center streets were too narrow, crooked and crowded. So, over 500 buildings were torn down and a new avenue was built across the historic center, from bay to bay, from north to south. This was the Avenida Central, soon renamed Avenida Rio Branco. It was a street has elegant as any in the world. The next major project was Nem de Sa Avenue in the historic Lapa district, built where the Morro do Senado (Senate Hill) had been. Last, but not least, during World War II, 1943-1944, a new, broad avenue named after the president (aka dictator) Getulio Vargas was added to intersect with Av. Rio Branco. This was done, in simple terms, by demolishing all buildings between two streets, forming one of the widests roads in the world. Basically that's it for the roads, except to mention the ugly elevated roadways that were added after the 1960s, including the one accross historic Praça XV (15 de Novembro Square) waterfront, and the Metro System (subway) built in the 1980s.

For more information...

As I said, this work took a couple of weeks, and I'm not really satisfied with it. The subject is much too complex and my materials are too limited (and even contradictory!). Maybe if I had a full year, and access to original materials, it could have been better. Oh well. Even so, the general result as seen in the animation is somewhat accurate. Here are some more pages I have done on historic Rio de Janeiro:

Maps of Rio. This is a page that traces the historical development of Rio through maps. I doubt that there is any other city in the Americas -- and I include even the very historic cities of Mexico and Lima -- which has as much detailed historical information from such a variety of sources, as does Rio de Janeiro.

The Old and New Rio. This is a page (relating to map above) about some of the major changes that have happened in the last 200 years in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This includes the building of Rio Branco Avenue, the tearing down of Castle Hill (Morro do Castelo), Santo Antonio Hill and and other significant changes to the old historic center area. I created a map overlay that shows the differences in the city from 1838 to 2000.

Main Topics Page! I suggest that you go to the "All Topics" index page by clicking on the "Topics and Updates" icon. Thanks!

Page updated: April 2005