Secret Rio

Visit an extraordinary hill where the “little angels” are buried; discover remarkable forgotten Art Deco buildings; see a plane taking off at really close range, leftovers from the 1908 and 1922 Universal Expositions, a beautiful private palace open to visitors once a month, modernist ceramics hidden on the 15th-floor terrace of a former government building, a remarkable secret staircase; experience little-known walks and views of the city; find an Amazonian talisman at Copacabana, vestiges of the Carioca river, a rare statue of the great-grandmother of Jesus, a taxi nightclub, a work of art in a favela, a disused airship hangar ...

Far from the crowds and the usual beach and carnival clichés, Rio de Janeiro has countless treasures it reveals only to residents and travellers who wander off the beaten track.

An indispensable guide for all those who thought they were familiar with Rio or would like to discover the other face of the city.

 Manoel de Almeida e Silva 

Born in the very traditional neighbourhood of Gamboa, Manoel de Almeida e Silva grew up in Engenho Velho, a long-forgotten name for the area around Tijuca in Rio’s Zona Norte. As a journalist and education specialist, he has lived in several countries during twenty-eight years of work with the United Nations, but has now settled in Copacabana. For this guide he has revived personal memories which, combined with his own research and suggestions from friends who are equally enthusiastic about Carioca diversity, aim to help expand the city’s tourist itinerary. 

  

Márcio Alves Roiter 

Founder of the Instituto Art Déco Brasil (2005), Márcio Alves Roiter is the author of Rio de Janeiro Art Déco (Casa da Palavra, 2011), Art Nouveau e Art Déco: Estilos de Sedução (Espaço Cultural Península, 2013) and Um Passeio na História (with Cynthia Garcia; Arezzo, 2010). Winner of the Cultural Award of the State of Rio de Janeiro, he has organised various exhibitions in Brazil and France, set up the 11th World Congress on Art Deco in Rio in 2011 and acted as a consultant for the restoration of many Art Deco buildings. He was also a speaker at the World Congress on Art Deco in New York (2005), Melbourne (2007) and Montreal (2009). 

  

Bruno Frederick Toussaint Pereira  

A researcher specialising in Rio architecture and urban planning, Bruno Frederick Toussaint Pereira has recently contributed to A Construção do Rio de Janeiro moderno (Casa da Palavra, 2015), on French architect Joseph Gire, as well as an inventory on Rio de Janeiro monuments published in 2015 by the prefecture. 

  

  

Pedro da Cunha e Menezes 

Diplomat and mountaineer Pedro da Cunha e Menezes has served in Peru, Australia, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa, Albania and Zimbabwe. He has also worked for the Environment Secretariat of Rio prefecture and as director of Tijuca National Park. For two years he was deputy representative of Brazil with the United Nations Environment Programme. He has already covered more than 20,000 km of trails in about 500 national parks of 120 countries. 

  

Carlos Fernando Andrade 

An architect and urban planner who trained in 1976 at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he gained an MA (1998) and PhD (2009) in urbanism, Carlos Fernando Andrade has held various administrative functions, such as public works director, Undersecretary of State for Planning, and chair of the State of Rio de Janeiro's National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (2011). He also edited the journal Chão from 1978 to 1989. In 2009 he received the Pedro Ernesto medal offered by the city council to the Professional of the Year, awarded by the Institute of Architects of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.