Sacopenapan was a rustic region, inhabited by the Tamoio people. There, pineapples, Brazilian cherry trees, thorns, and thistles populated the sands and coexisted with fishermen. From time to time, ships would anchor near the sands and take away some of the fruits offered in their boats. Some of these sailors were involved in official trade or smuggling, which guaranteed the city's wealth. Among them were the peruleiros, silver merchants who brought their goods from Potosí, via the Río de la Plata. It was they who, at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century, built a small chapel on the rocks of what is now Posto 6, in devotion to Nossa Senhora de Copacabana. Thus, Copacabana was born.
Image description: This is an old photograph of Copacabana, showing a church located on a rocky point by the sea. The church has a simple façade, with two side towers and a white-tiled roof. To the left, there is a small chapel with a vaulted dome. The sea is calm, with gentle waves breaking against the rocks. On the horizon, we see some distant islands. The image is in black and white. At the bottom of the photo, it reads "Copacabana."Church of Nossa Senhora de Copacabana - Photo by Marc Ferrez, c. 1900. Instituto Moreira Salles
Travelers who passed through the city in the 18th and 19th centuries, curious to know what existed beyond the urban core, would venture by sea to the region. Some of them requested land from the City Council and settled in isolated country houses and farms. Soldiers camped on Praia Vermelha also ventured onto Babilônia hill, climbing steep slopes to enjoy the tranquility of the beach. Among them was an officer of the foreign battalions, who took excursions on cool mornings in the year 1846 along the Caminho do morro da Babilônia. He describes a landscape full of pineapples, with a few houses and shacks belonging to fishermen and enslaved people, surrounded by vegetable gardens. Later, this path became known as Caminho dos Pretos Quebra Bolas, leading many to believe it had been a quilombo.
In 1855, José Martins Barroso, a master builder and resident of Botafogo, worked hard to extend Rua Real Grandeza to Rua Berquó, now General Polidoro, and then to the fringes of Morro da Saudade, or Vila Rica. With that done, he decided to open a slope through the hill that would take him to the other side - Copacabana - with the support of the families of the region. The petition addressed to the City Council justifies the project, which made "the use of the baths easier for the families who, in the hot season, used to visit one of the cleanest and most pleasant beaches of our capital." Barroso had the general support of the residents of the region. The slope and the street that followed it were called Ladeira do Barroso and Rua do Barroso (now Rua Siqueira Campos). A new path had been opened.
With this new route, visits to Copacabana increased, and the first developments began in 1858, with the encouragement of D. Pedro II. In 1873, the emperor inaugurated the submarine cable there, connecting Brazil to the world.
Count Figueiredo Magalhães bought land on the Barroso slope and, below it, near the beach, organized the first stagecoach line to Copacabana. Torquato Couto, a city councilman, invested in the Leme area, building his house near the Babilônia hill, where he received visits from Conrado Niemeyer, who, in 1883, settled on a lot on Tonelero street.
Many doctors, drawn by the benefits of Copacabana's fresh air, moved to live in the neighborhood. Several streets bear their names: Hilário de Gouveia, Barata Ribeiro, Sousa Lima, Sá Ferreira, Domingos Ferreira, and others. Still in 1905, when the Companhia Jardim Botânico extended its tracks to Leme, the following little rhymes were popular:
Your lungs beg for salt-laden air
Run, before consumption shackles them,
Leave the infected center of Rio behind,
Take a streetcar that goes to Leme.
Or
Graceful young ladies, chic young gentlemen,
I fled the streets, the insane dust:
There are no picnic spots
As in Copacabana.
The trams were responsible for the occupation of the neighborhood. In 1892, the Companhia Jardim Botânico opened the tunnel at the Vila Rica hill, with President Floriano Peixoto in attendance. From then on, two real estate companies took charge of business: the Companhia de Construções Civis of Alexandre Wagner, an engineer and employee of the Companhia Jardim Botânico, and of Constante Ramos's heirs; and the Companhia of Otto Simon and Paula Freitas, which carried out the opening of Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana and several other streets.
In 1909, the first movie theater arrived in the neighborhood (the Cinema Copacabana, in what is now Serzedelo Correia square), accompanying the modernization carried out by Pereira Passos. By 1910, the population between Leme and Ipanema had already reached 20,000 inhabitants.
The 1920s saw the neighborhood's transformation into a seaside resort. Epitácio Pessoa's incentive for the construction of hotels for the Centennial Commemorative Exhibition of Independence resulted in the building of the Copacabana Palace, a project by Joseph Gire. Due to many delays in construction and in the arrival of imported material, it was only inaugurated in 1923, after the exhibition had ended.
Image description: The image is an old photograph of a large building located in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. From left to right, we see a series of decorative columns forming a portico. The building has several windows arranged horizontally, with balconies beneath them. On the right, there is a rounded structure with a dome. The background features a mountain and a cloudy sky.Copacabana Palace in 1923.
Buses and shuttle vans began running in the neighborhood starting in 1930, along with the modernization of the lighting on Atlântica Avenue - the "string of pearls" of Copacabana, according to Paulo de Frontin - and the verticalization of buildings. By the 1930s, the neighborhood already had around seventy buildings, seven of which had more than ten floors and the others more than four. The style
art deco
It advanced with its straight, artistic lines; the windows, like ship portholes, gazed out at the horizon and the future; and the iron railings gave shape to the building. The masonry verandas and balconies stood out and made room for the sea air to come in, cooling the spacious, elegant rooms. The neighborhood competed with the regions of southern Latin America for supremacy in gambling. Two casinos vied for the wealthy public: the Copacabana Palace's and the Cassino Atlântico, which stood right at the end of the beach, near the church and the fort, where the Fairmont Hotel and the Cassino Atlântico Shopping Mall stand today.
Image description: This is a black and white photograph of a modernist building at night. On the left side, we see a rectangular structure with vertical windows. In the center, there is a building with rounded, curved shapes, lit by interior lights. On the right, there is a series of balconies with people walking. The sky is dark, suggesting the photo was taken at night.Cassino Atlântico. Correio da Manhã Collection - Arquivo Nacional.
In 1934, another part of the Ingá hill was destroyed to build the Copacabana Palace's pool and pergola. Four years later, work on the "Cantagalo Cut" was completed, opening the connection between Copacabana and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.
The 1940s consolidated the neighborhood's tourist and leisure vocation, attracting the city's leading sophisticated stores. By that time, the neighborhood had 70,000 inhabitants, and its attractions caused that population to double in the summer, driving nightclubs, casinos, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, and famous establishments such as Confeitaria Colombo and the Galeria Menescal. All these transformations depended, to a large extent, on the flow of immigrants from the Northeast, fleeing the region's droughts and taken on by the labor market as workers.
In the following decade, with a resort-town atmosphere, Copacabana experienced its cultural and social heyday. The neighborhood saw the rise of bossa nova, samba canção, and rock and took on a bohemian character. It also had a pioneering spirit: it was home to the city's first "mall" – the Centro Comercial de Copacabana – and the first self-service supermarket – the Disco –, a novelty for the time. It quickly embraced new trends and was home to the wayward youth and the audacity of both young and old, like the Cafajestes club. The city's nightlife came to be centered there. The trendy nightclub was the
.
In the Beco das Garrafas, one witnessed the arrival of Bossa Nova. Elizeth Cardoso, on the album
Canção do Amor Demais,
showed off her voice accompanied by João Gilberto. Young people from the neighborhood would gather at Nara Leão's or Roberto Menescal's house to dance and sing.
Image description: The image is a black-and-white photograph of an establishment called "Bottles Bar." The main entrance is on the right, with a closed sliding door. On the left, there is a sign reading "Baccara" hanging on the wall. A person is standing on a box, holding the "Baccara" sign. The building has a facade with geometric patterns in shades of gray and black.Bottle's Bar which, along with Little Club and Bacará, hosted the biggest names in Brazilian music. Unidentified photographer - Rolé Carioca website
But this bright side concealed many ills. Real estate interests drove population densification, with the construction of apartment units with very reduced spaces, the so-called JK (Janela e Kitnete -- Window and Studio), which took over the areas between Rua Prado Júnior and Rua Figueiredo Magalhães.
One of the most striking aspects of that period was the water shortage in the South Zone. As the city's growth happened at a dizzying pace, public services failed to keep up with that pace, and the precarious water supply was even immortalized in song lyrics. Cauby Peixoto captured this situation by singing "lata d'água na cabeça, lá vai Maria..." (water can on her head, there goes Maria...).
There was no water or electricity, the streets were full of potholes and occupied by people experiencing homelessness. On the beach, at night, the homeless would gather. Rubem Braga, a resident of the neighborhood, said in 1958, in one of his columns in the book Ai de ti, Copacabana:
Já movi o mar de uma parte e de outra parte. E suas ondas tomaram o Leme e o Arpoador, e tu não viste este sinal: estás perdida e cega no meio de tuas iniquidades e de tua malícia
The creation of the state of Guanabara in 1960, and the urban reforms implemented by Governor Carlos Lacerda, brought improvements in mobility and infrastructure, restoring its prestige.
