Governador Island (Ilha do Governador, in
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
; literally Governor's Island, in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
) is the largest island in
Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay ( pt, Baía de Guanabara, ) is an oceanic bay located in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lie the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói a ...
, in
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-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
,
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 has a population of about 211,018 inhabitants, in a small area of .
Rio de Janeiro's main airport,
Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport Galeão (Portuguese meaning galleon) may refer to:
*Galeão Air Force Base, a Brazilian Air Force base in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport (Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport), an airport in t ...
, and the
Galeão Air Force Base
Galeão Air Force Base – ALA11 is a base of the Brazilian Air Force located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is named after nearby ''Praia do Galeão'' (''Galleon Beach''), where in 1663 the galleon '' Padre Eterno'' was built.
It shares som ...
are located on Governador Island and occupy about a third of it, in the western and northwestern parts. A small sea inlet that once existed on the northwestern shore was
landfilled to build the airport's
runway
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...
10/28, thereby increasing the island's area.
Often mentioned by
carioca
Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...
s (inhabitants of Rio city) simply as ''Ilha'' ("island"), Governador Island has some
favela
Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...
s, such as the not pacified
Morro do Dendê, the largest one, but it also has many middle-class neighborhoods like the third best IDH index in the city, the
Jardim Guanabara neighborhood. The island is connected to
Fundão Island and to the mainland by a complex of expressway bridges and through a barge in Cocotá Terminal, transporting passengers to
downtown Rio.
The name means "Governor's Island" because one of the first colonial governors of Brazil built a country house on the island in the 16th century. The native name for the island in
Old Tupi was ''Paranapuã'', which means "sea branch".
People from Governador Island suffer from high pollution from Guanabara Bay. Although surrounded by beaches, many of them have become unusable even though the bay has been cleaned up in recent years for the
2016 Summer Olympics.
The island is home to only one professional football club,
A.A. Portuguesa. Its home is
Estádio Luso Brasileiro, which in recent years has been expanded so it can be used professionally by
Botafogo
Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood ('' bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of ...
, as
Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, its normal home, is being used for Olympic purposes. It was also used by
Flamengo
Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football ...
during 2017 and 2018, in the time being called Ilha do Urubu.
Neighborhoods
In July 1981, the then mayor Júlio Coutinho approved a law that effectively divided Governador Island in fourteen different new neighborhoods: Bancários, Cacuia, Cocotá, Galeão, Jardim Carioca, Jardim Guanabara, Moneró, Pitangueiras, Portuguesa, Praia da Bandeira, Ribeira, Tauá and Zumbi.
References
External links
*
Atlantic islands of Brazil
Guanabara Bay
Geography of Rio de Janeiro (city)
Landforms of Rio de Janeiro (state)
{{RiodeJaneiro-geo-stub