Pão de açucar

Sugarloaf Mountain, in the form of warhead, the prime location by the presence in the city's history, the original access to its summit, is a natural landmark, historical and touristic city of Rio de Janeiro.




Natural landmark, because the peak of Sugar Loaf is at the entrance of Guanabara Bay, and visual reference for browsers that sea or air, seeking to be located on the outskirts of town.



Milestone, because at his feet, Estacio de Sa, on 1 March 1565, founded the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro. Estacio de Sa arrived in Rio de Janeiro on February 28, 1565 and on March 1 laid the foundation of the city between the hills of Dog Man and Sugar Loaf, because it is easier for local defense. The site allowed not only to observe any movement of incoming and outgoing vessels of the bay, as providing insight into all possible invaders.



Famous landmark, because the opening of the Sugar Loaf cable car in 1912, designed the name of Brazil abroad. The Sugar Loaf cable car was first installed in Brazil and the third in the world, increasing the development of national tourism. Not without reason it is called the Jewel of Tourism in the Marvelous City.



Features



Trademark of Rio de Janeiro, the hill of Sugar Loaf Mountain is one devoid of vegetation almost entirely. It is a single block of rock from the granite, which was altered by pressure and temperature and has aged more than 600 million years. Sugarloaf Mountain is surrounded by vegetation characteristic of the tropics, specifically a remnant of Atlantic forest with native species elsewhere in the Brazilian coastal vegetation has already been extinguished.



Source Name



There are several historical versions regarding the origin of the name Sugar Loaf. According to the historian Vieira Fazenda, were the Portuguese who have given this name because during the heyday of the cultivation of sugar cane in Brazil (XVI and XVII century), after being squeezed cane juice and boiled and refined, the blocks of sugar were placed in a conical shape clay to transport it to Europe, which was called loaf sugar. The similarity of the rock Rio with that form of clay would have led to the name. The boulder was riding time, chronologically, the following names:



"Pau-nh-açuquã" from the Tupi language, given by Tamoios, the original inhabitants of Guanabara Bay, meaning "high hill, isolated and pointed," "Pot de beurre" given by the French invaders in the first round, "Bread Sucar 'given by early Portuguese settlers, "Pot de Sucre" given by the French invaders in the second round. Spelling, according to previous spelling of Portuguese, "Sugar Loaf" was with ss.



The name Sugar Loaf became widespread from the second half of the nineteenth century, when Rio de Janeiro received missions from the artistic designer and painter Johann Moritz Rugendas German and French graphic artist Jean Baptiste Debret that in magnificent drawings and engravings , extolled the beauty of Sugarloaf.