arraial do cabo was for a long time an administrative division of nossa senhora da assunção de cabo frio, with only marginal importance to the trading activities of the territory - in fact, for a long time arraial was mostly home to fishermen, only connected to the rest of the region and trades via the beaches, as there were no other roads.

until the end of the nineteenth century, the region saw a constant prosperity based on agriculture but, with the abolition of slavery, this economic stability came to a sudden end.

similarly to what happened with other towns in the region, the arrival of the railway increased trade and brought new wealth to the area, as commerce and tourism with the nearby rio de janeiro resulted in a fast urbanization of this land.