at a glance

by the start of the eighteenth century rio's population had reached the serra da tijuca (tijuca mountains) - although it was still a rural area at that time, it was experiencing influx in urbanization, and the nobility and merchant class built villas, mansions and country cottages here, which eventually became their permanent residences.

the aggrasive agricultural use, mainly for coffee and sugarcane crops impacted greatly on the native jungle of the region, as a result, the portuguese government, under the rule of emperor d. pedro ii, began to intervene in an effort to slowdown the deforestation of the floresta da tijuca (tijuca forest) - in fact, the emperor order the reconstruction of the old atlantic rainforest.

the area was also once referred to as the old região do andaraí pequeno (small andaraí region). it continued to evolve into today's tijuca bairro between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. the old area known as andaraí grande (large andaraí)was absorbed into the neighborhood in the 1970s. the developing bairro also absorbed the old parish of engenho velho (old mill).