Petropolis Travel Guide

Petropolis is a city in Rio de Janeiro State, southeast Brazil with over 300,000 inhabitants. When the summer is getting too hot in Rio, Petropolis becomes a summer resort for many and, untill 1962, Petropolis was virtually Brazil's summer capital. A steep scenic road leads to this mountain city, which is well known for its floral beauty.

Petropolis has some interesting street names like the Estrada Uniao e Industria (the Road of "Unity and Industry"). These names were renamed less than one month after the Announcement of the Republic to banish all references to the imperial era. Only 90 years later, on October the 9th of 1979, the main way through the Historical Center again came to be called Road of the Emperor. Here you also find the Imperial Museum, housed in the former imperial palace. It is an elegant building in neoclassical style, fully furnished and equipped as it was in the time of Don Pedro II.

Also, don’t miss the gothic styled Cathedral of Sao Pedro de Alcantara, which was actually built in 1925 and is the final resting place of the emperor and empress.