understanding rio understanding how it was shaped by the writings of journalists, intellectualsand artists - at the end of the 19th century the city's soul lay in its centre, where a vast number of its great thinkers resided, continually representing and transforming it with the great force of their pen.

rio was the center of the brazilian government, and was therefore constantly drawing in the elite thinkers of the time, attracted to its buzzing intellectual epicenter. 

between 1870 and 1920, rio was home to the nation's most significant writers - this period coincided with the inception and development of the brazilian press, and these thinkers played an incisive role in the media content that was disseminated to the wider public, with famous writers, such as machado da assis, being regular columnists for these early periodicals.