Rio Comprido is a neighborhood located in the center (

Centro Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil *Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...

) 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-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

city, in

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 borders the Catumbi, Estácio, Praça da Bandeira and

Tijuca Tijuca () (meaning marsh or swamp in the Tupi language, from ''ty'' ("water") and ''îuk'' ("rotten")) is a neighbourhood of the Northern Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It comprises the region of Saens Peña and Afonso Pena squar ...

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 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 ...

. The name ''Rio Comprido'' means Long River.

History

In the 17th century the Rio Comprido valley produced sugarcane, flowed off by a warehouse in embarkations which conducted it to the bay. In the 19th century, the sugar farming was replaced by

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

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