Rio de Janeiro commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th largest in the Americas, and 26th in the world.
Rio de Janeiro has become a home of a World Heritage Site named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea," as granted by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 in the category Cultural Landscape. The decision was taken by the committee of the assets of the organization. The announcement came during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1815 during the Portuguese colonial era, 1815 to 1821 as the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves, and 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. Rio is nicknamed the Cidade Maravilhosa or "Marvelous City."
Rio has a tropical savanna climate that closely borders a tropical monsoon climate according to the Köppen climate classification, and is often characterized by long periods of heavy rain from December to March. In inland areas of the city, temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F) are common during the summer, though rarely for long periods, while maximum temperatures above 27 °C (81 °F) can occur on a monthly basis.
Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, according to 2009 researches from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (known as Portuguese: Novo Mapa das Religiões), nowadays rank first among Brazilian peripheries in Irreligion percentage (23.68%), and it is also the least Roman Catholic among Brazilian metropolitan areas, and trails only Boa Vista among the least Roman Catholic (51–52%).
Culture and contemporary life
Rio de Janeiro is a main cultural hub in Brazil. Its architecture embraces churches and buildings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, blending with the world renowned designs of the 20th century. Rio was home to the Portuguese Imperial family and capital of the country for many years, and was influenced by Portuguese, English, and French architecture.
Rio de Janeiro inherited from the past a strong cultural role. In the late 19th century, there were sessions held the first Brazilian film and since then, spread out several cycles of production, which eventually enter the cinema at the forefront Rio experimental and leadership national cinema. Currently, Rio brings together the main production centers of Brazilian television.
Tourism and recreation
Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's primary tourist attraction and resort. It receives the most visitors per year of any city in South America with 2.82 million international tourists a year. The city sports world-class hotels, approximately 80 kilometres of beachland, and the famous Corcovado and Sugarloaf mountains. While the city has in past had a thriving tourism sector, the industry entered a decline in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Annual international airport arrivals dropped from 621,000 to 378,000 and average hotel occupancy dropped to 50% between 1985 and 1993. The fact that Brasília replaced Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian capital and São Paulo as the country's commercial center has also been cited as a leading cause of the decline. Rio de Janeiro's government has since undertaken to modernise the city's economy, reduce its chronic social inequalities, and improve its commercial standing as part of an initiative for the regeneration of the tourism industry.
The city is an important global LGBT destination, 1 million LGBTQ tourists visit the city of Rio de Janeiro each year. The Rua Farme de Amoedo located in Ipanema, the city of Rio de Janeiro. The street and nearby beach are remarkable for their popularity in the LGBT community, being famous tourist spot. Rio de Janeiro is the most awarded destination by World Travel Awards in the South American category as the best destination.
The official song of Rio de Janeiro is "Cidade Maravilhosa", which means "marvelous city". The song is considered the "civic anthem" of Rio, and is always the favourite song during Rio's Carnival in February. Rio de Janeiro is a centre of the urban music movement in Brazil.