Vila do Abraão is a village in Ilha Grande,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is part of the

Angra dos Reis Angra dos Reis (; Portuguese for ''cove'' or ''bay of the Kings'') is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city is located by the sea and includes in its territory many offshore islands, the l ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The village is located in a cove and is the largest urban center on the island, with roughly 3,000 inhabitants. It contains most of the island's infrastructure and is therefore considered the "capital" of the island.

History

The settlement of the region began in the colonial period. The most accepted hypothesis for the origin of the name ''abraão'' (not to be confused with the mistranslation "Abraham") relates to the term ''abra'' in old Portuguese, meaning "bay". Thus, the name refers to the large bay that is the location. The development of Vila do Abraão gained momentum in the late nineteenth century, at the time of the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

, when a leper hospital was built nearby. The leper hospital was built between 1884 and 1887, and served the dual purpose of hosting immigrants arriving by ship to Brazil, where the passengers were given health screenings and ships were disinfected. From the 1930s, the leper hospital was used as a military base and prison, and was demolished in the 1950s. Vila do Abraão gained new momentum in 1993, when the nearby prison was closed down. The attractions of the island supported the rapid development of tourism, transforming the town into a tourist hub. Hostels, bars, and restaurants were constructed, and sea and land trails were developed connecting the town to the beaches and other attractions of Ilha Grande. The village has a pier where ferry boats transporting passengers and goods between the village and

and

Mangaratiba Mangaratiba () is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Its population is 45,220 (2020) and its area is 352 km2.IBGE - Part of the Sylvester Stallone film '' The Expendables'' was shot in the central part of the c ...

dock daily. Also making use of the dock and pier are sloops and schooners that transport tourists to other places on the island.

References

External links

Vila do Abraão - Ilha Grande

Prefeitura de Angra dos Reis
Populated places in Rio de Janeiro (state) Angra dos Reis {{RiodeJaneiro-geo-stub