São Gonçalo
Brazil · Americas
About São Gonçalo
São Gonçalo is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the Southeast region. It is located in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, having land limits with the municipalities of Niterói, Maricá and Itaboraí, and a maritime limit, by Guanabara Bay, with the capital, Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 census, it has a population of 960,652 inhabitants, making it the second most populous municipality in the state and the 18th most populous in the country.
The current Brazilian territory had been inhabited since at least 10,000 BC by people from other continents. Around the year 1000, the Tapuia people who inhabited the region currently occupied by the municipality were expelled to the interior of the continent due to the arrival of Tupi people from the Amazon.
In the 16th century, when the first Europeans arrived in the region, it was inhabited by one of these Tupi people: the Tupinambás, who would later be part of the Tamoios Confederation. Archaeological remains indicate that a place especially inhabited by the Tupinambás in the municipality was the island of Itaóca. The coast of Rio de Janeiro,...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.