at a glance

One of the stations was named after the great Rio das Pedras that cut through the region. The name was changed to that of the important figure, Oswaldo Cruz, after his death in 1917, to honor his work and the contribution he made to the nation.

Oswaldo Cruz, lived between 1872 and 1917, and was a famous physician and medic responsible for the eradication of yellow fever from Rio de Janeiro. He formed the Manguinhos Institute, a pioneering biomedical and vaccine production institution, and went on to occupy a chair in the Academia Brasileira de Letras, or 'Brazilian Academy of Letters', a cultural institution whose goal is the cultivation of national language and literature.

Simple, modest houses and shops began to materialize and public parks formed in the first half of the century.
In the 1970's two housing complexes were constructed as part of an urbanization program to develop the region. One of these was built around the Oswaldo Cruz station, and hence received the same name.