Rio Comprido is a neighborhood located in the center (
Centro) of
Rio de Janeiro city, in
Brazil. It borders the
Catumbi
Catumbi is a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and includes the Morro da Mineira
Morro da Mineira("Miner's Hill") is a favela located in the Catumbi neighborhood, near downtown Rio de Janeiro, the Sambadrome, and the Praça da Apoteose. Mo ...
,
Estácio,
Praça da Bandeira
Praça da Bandeira is a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second ...
and
Tijuca neighborhoods.
Etymology
The name Rio Comprido comes from
the river passing through it. This river is currently canalized and completely degraded, and empties into
Guanabara Bay.
The name ''Rio Comprido'' means Long River.
History
In the 17th century the Rio Comprido valley produced
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
, flowed off by a warehouse in embarkations which conducted it to the bay. In the 19th century, the sugar farming was replaced by
coffee farming. The neighborhood was settled by Englishmen, and was known until the beginning of the 20th century as ''Chácara dos Ingleses'' (Englishmen Small Ranch).
When the Paulo de Frontin viaduct was opened, it created access to the Rebouças tunnel and to the city's southern zone, turning Rio Comprido into a passageway neighborhood, currently surrounded by lower income communities, such as ''Turano'', ''Fogueteiro'', ''Querosene'', ''Fallet'', ''Coroa'', ''São Carlos'' and ''Mineira'', which suffer from violence and social exclusion.
References
*Much of the content of this article comes from
the equivalent Portuguese-language Wikipedia article (retrieved August 20, 2005).
{{Rio de Janeiro city neighbourhoods
Rio Comprido