at a glance

Ilha do Governador was first discovered in 1502 by Portuguese navigators. Its first inhabitants were the Termiminós Indians, who called the island Ilha de Paranapuã, or 'Paranapuã Island'. The Tamoios Indians, enemies of the Termiminós, referred to it as the island of Maracajás, which were big cats of abundance in the region. The inhabitants eventually fled the island as a result of enemy attacks.

The name Ilha do Governador, or 'Governor's Island', only emerged in 1567, two years after the city of Rio was founded, when the then Governor General of the State of Rio, Mem de Sá, gifted more than half of the land to his nephew, Salvador Correia Sá, who was Governor and Captain-General of the Royal Captaincy of the state. Correia de Sá, who took over as governor of the captaincy, used the land for the production of sugar cane, which was exported to Europe throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.