Rio De Janeiro history

A natural port of the Baía de Guanabara (Guanabara Bay) in southeast Brazil, the city was founded by the Portuguese in 1502. They named it Rio de Janeiro (River of January), under the mistaken impression that it was an enormous river mouth.

The arrival of the Portuguese royal family in 1808 trigged an unusual process in history, transforming, in little more than a decade, a simple colony into the capital of the Brazilian Empire. A convoy of French artists was called to adorn the city and transform Rio de Janeiro into the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere.

Today, Rio has got it all: the latitude of the tropics, the swing of Africa and the European flavour of half a century of mix and match with the Old World.