at a glance

many areas of s rio de janeiro's south zone were little more than jungle and sand, up until the middle 19th century, leblon started its existence this way - the name of the neighborhood came from a French businessman named charles le blon who had a ranch in the area and was a powerful land owner in the district at that time.

up until the first half of the 20th Century leblon was largely undeveloped and very difficult to access - urbanization only began, along with its neighbor, ipanema, after a tunnel was built connecting the region to botafogo and centro.