SANTA TERESA

Description

Essentials about Santa Teresa in brief

Narrow, winding streets with colorfully painted walls, old mansions, lots of artists’ studios and art galleries, small museums, numerous bars and restaurants and the rattling of the oldest streetcar in South America make up the incomparable charm of the Santa Teresa district. If you want to get to know perhaps the most charming neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, you should make your way to Santa Teresa.

The history of Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa is located on a hill south of downtown Rio. The neighborhood grew up around the Santa Teresa Convent, which was built on the Desterro hill in the 1750s. Many mansions from the turn of the 20th century, many of which are still preserved today, show that the neighborhood was a preferred residential area for the upper class at that time. From time immemorial, Santa Teresa was a district that attracted European emigrants in particular, including quite a few Germans. Until 1960, when Rio was still the capital of Brazil, the foreign embassies were also located here.

The sights of Santa Teresa

In the decades that followed, however, the quality of living and life in Santa Teresa visibly deteriorated. For some years now, however, the neighborhood has been experiencing a revitalization and resurrection as an artists’ quarter. The many small studios and galleries, the numerous bars and restaurants as well as the preserved architecture attract many tourists today. Besides the thriving art and gastronomy scene of Santa Teresa, the great views of Rio de Janeiro are another good reason to pay the neighborhood a visit. From Parque das Ruinas, a dilapidated mansion of which only the walls remain, you have the very best panoramic view of the city.

Getting to Santa Teresa

There are two equally well-known and interesting ways up to Santa Teresa. Either one takes the famous tramway, called the Bonde, over the spectacular Carioca Aqueduct. The yellow streetcar has been in continuous operation since 1877, making it the oldest electrified railroad in all of South America. Those who prefer to walk should take the ascent via the Escadaria Selarón, arguably the most impressive staircase in Rio de Janeiro.