Petrópolis in Brazil

Emperor Pedro I, who tired of the sticky summer heat in Rio, longed for a summer palace in the cool of the Atlantic coast mountains but abdicated before he could realize his dream. When the new emperor, Pedro II, took the throne, he soon approved plans presented by the German architect Julius Friedrich Köler for a palace and a new city, to be settled by immigrants. The result was Petrópolis. The city was founded in 1843 and in little over a decade had become a bustling Germanic town and an important imperial summer retreat. The emperor and his family would spend as much as six months of each year here and, as he had his court in tow, Köler was able to construct numerous grand houses and administrative buildings. Many of these still stand - bizarre Rhineland anomalies in a neotropical landscape.

Ins and outs

There are buses from the

rodoviária

in Rio. Sit on the left-hand side for best views and bring travel sickness pills if you are prone to nausea on winding roads. Return tickets are not available, so buy tickets for the return journey on arrival in Petrópolis. The main

tourist office

is at the far southwestern end of Avenida Koeler. It has a list of tourist sights and hotels, a good, free, colour map of the city, and a useful pamphlet in various languages. Some staff are multilingual; all are helpful.

Sights

Three rivers dominate the layout of Petrópolis: the

Piabanha

Quitandinha

and the

Palatino

In the historic centre, where most of the sites of tourist interest are to be found, the rivers have been channelled to run down the middle of the main avenues. Their banks are planted with flowering trees and the overall aspect is unusual in Brazil; you quickly get a sense that this was a city built with a specific purpose and at a specific time in Brazil's history.

Petrópolis's main attraction is its imperial palace. The

Museu Imperial

, is Brazil's most visited museum and is so well kept you might think the imperial family had left the day before, rather than in 1889. It's modest for an emperor, neoclassical in style and fully furnished, and is worth a visit if just to see the Crown jewels of both Pedro I and Pedro II. The palace gardens in front are filled with little fountains, statues and shady benches. Descendants of the original family live in a house behind the palace. Horse-drawn carriages wait to be hired outside the gate; not all the horses are in good shape.

Opposite the Museu Imperial is the handsome

Palácio Amarelo

, built in 1850 as the palace of another Brazilian baron and now the Câmara Municipal (town hall). The twin shady

praças

dos Expedicionários

and

Dom Pedro II

(which has a pigeon-covered statue of the emperor) lie opposite each other at the junction of Rua do Imperador and Rua da Imperatriz, 100 m south of the Museu Imperial.

At the northern end of Rua da Imperatriz is the Gothic revival

Catedral de São Pedro de Alcântara

, where Emperor Pedro II, his wife Princesa Teresa, Princesa Isabel and Count D'Eu are entombed in mock-European regal marble. This lies at the end of the city's most impressive avenue,

Avenida Koeler

, which is lined with mansions built by the imperial and republican aristocracy. Among them are the neoclassical

Palácio Rio Negro

, built in 1889 by the Barão do Rio Negro as the summer retreat of Brazilian presidents, and the

Casa da Princesa Isabel

, the former residence of Dom Pedro II's daughter and her husband the Count D'Eu.

Avenida Koeler ends at the

Praça da Liberdade

where there are cafés, goat-drawn carts for children and very photogenic views of the cathedral. A further 100 m west of the

praça

(away from Avenida Koeler) is the

Museu Santos Dumont

. The summer home of Alberto Santos Dumont, who Brazilians claim was the first man to fly an aeroplane, was designed in 1918 as a mock-Alpine chalet. Santos Dumont called it 'the enchanted one', and it is a delightful example of an inventor's house. Steps to the roof lead to an observation point and are carefully designed to allow visitors only to ascend right foot first. His desk doubled up to become his bed. The alcohol-heated shower is said to be the first in Brazil.

The city has a handful of other interesting buildings. The

Casa de Rui Barbosa

, was the home of the Bahian media mogul and writer who was instrumental in abolishing slavery in Brazil. The

Casa de Petrópolis

, is a magnificent Gothic folly set in formal French gardens and was built in 1884 by José Tavares Guerra, the grandson of the founder of industrialization in Brazil, the Barão de Mauá. Taking centre stage in the Praça da Confluência is the

Palácio de Cristal

, which was commissioned and built in France following London's great exhibition, when such palaces were all the rage in Europe. It opened to great aplomb, fell into disrepair in the 20th century and is now the home of weekend concerts and shows.

Some 10 km from the centre, on the way to the BR-040 to Rio, is the

Palácio Quitandinha

, a vast mock-Bavarian edifice that was built in 1944 to be the largest casino in South America. The lake in front of the building is in the shape of Brazil. Further out of town still is the

Orquidário Binot

. This nursery has one of the best collections of Brazilian orchids in the state and is well worth visiting even if you don't intend to buy.

This is edited copy from Footprint Handbooks. For comprehensive details (incl address, tel no, directions, opening times and prices) please refer to book or individual chapter PDF

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