Engenho Novo

The occupation of the region known today as Grande Méier began when Estácio de Sá donated the Sesmaria de Iguaçu to the Jesuit priests. The lands encompassed the current neighborhoods of Grande Méier and others such as Catumbi, Tijuca, Benfica and São Cristóvão. In them, the Jesuits installed three sugar mills: Engenho Velho, Engenho Novo and São Cristóvão.

The construction, in 1720, of a chapel dedicated to São Miguel and Nossa Senhora da Conceição, in Engenho Novo, boosted the growth of the area.

The chapel gained new forms over time. And it even hides an exhibition of bones from the shameful period of slavery.[5]

In 1759, when the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil, their lands passed into the hands of Manuel Gomes, Manuel da Silva and Manuel Teixeira. With the aim of exploiting wood and growing vegetables, the existing forests were devastated, forming large empty spaces that would allow the occupation of the soil.

A significant part of Engenho Novo would be called "Quinta dos Duques", due to the acquisition of this region by the family of Duque-Estrada de Itaboraí. This same family would send, in 1815, an application to Dom João VI asking for the concession of the surrounding vacant lands – currently known as Manguinhos[6]

Freed slaves built precarious dwellings in "Morro dos Pretos Forros", a region currently covered by the Grajaú-Jacarepaguá highway, expanding occupation of the region. Later, colonization was accelerated with the discovery of gold in the region.

The Parish of "Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Engenho Novo" was created in 1783, boosting the development of the region. Until the Second Empire, farms and ranches multiplied. Trade was developing around the old mills.

The Engenho Novo station, opened in 1858 by the then Dom Pedro II Railroad, which in 1889 was renamed Central Railroad Brasil, was decisive for the occupation of the neighborhood. From then on, the lands were subdivided and the streets (opened in almost all terrains swampy) were being cleaned up.

Accident at the station injures several passengers (A Provincia de S. Paulo, 03/22/1882)

“On March 29, 1858, at ten thirty minutes in the morning, the first train of the Estrada de Ferro D.Pedro II departed from Campo da Aclamação, in the eyes of the 'happy and jubilant people' that surrounded the station and the road to Queimados. According to a reporter from Jornal do Comércio, the inauguration party for the Railway had agitated the population on the inaugural journey, which lasted an hour and forty minutes”.

Wrote historian Elaina Serfaty in the book “By the suburban train”, by the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro.[7] With the train station, the neighborhood was drastically changed. It became the gateway to the North Zone. Trade grew. The number of residents grew. The economy grew. Sanitation has arrived.

In 1903, the development of the Region accelerated, with emphasis on the side of Méier station where a solid trade was formed. Important business houses and magazines emerged that attracted people from all over the City. The neighborhood has one of the units of one of the most famous public schools in the state, Colégio Pedro II. Founded in March 1952, as one of the Externato Sections of the CPII, in the building where the Colégio Independência had operated until then, located on Rua Barão do Bom Retiro, which connects the neighborhood to Grajaú. The campus Engenho Novo I began its activities in 1986, built in the former guild building of the campus Engenho Novo II.[8]

• The pagode group Revelação emerged in this neighborhood in the early 1990s, making a career leap in the block Arranco do Engenho de Dentro, and is now one of the most successful groups in Brazil.
• The singer of the band “O Rappa”, Marcelo Falcão was born and raised in the Engenho Novo neighborhood, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Falcão attended primary school at Colégio Salesiano do Riachuelo, close to where he lived, in Engenho Novo.

The city of Rio de Janeiro has a tropical savannah climate (Aw). According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, generally characterized by long periods of heavy rain between December and March.[9] The city experiences hot, humid summers and warm, sunny winters. Temperatures above 35 °C are common during the summer, although rarely for long periods, while maximum temperatures above 23 °C can occur monthly.[10]