Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro State, Southeast Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Cabo Frio is a tourist destination located in the state of Rio de Janeiro state. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1615. The Brazilian coast runs east from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio where it turns sharply north. North of Cabo Frio is Cabo de São Tomé.

It was named after the region where it's located, a peninsula or Cape (geography) and the water temperature is colder than in nearby cities (frio is Portuguese for "cold"). This city features beaches with white fine sand, since it doesn't have mica the sand doesn't get hot and you can walk on it with bare feet without getting burnt.

Cabo Frio is served by Cabo Frio International Airport.

History The human occupation of the lands where the city of Cabo Frio would be established began about six thousand years ago, when a small nomadic band of families arrived in canoes by the sea and camped in Morro dos Índios until then small rocky island in the current bar of the Araruama Lagoon and extreme coastal point of the restinga bank of the Itajuru Canal.

According to the archaeological evidence found in this "sambaquí", which would later be abandoned by the depletion of resources for survival, the nomadic group had rudimentary technology and was based on an economy of collection, fishing and hunting, where mollusks represented almost all the result of the effort for food and adornment purposes. More than 1,500 years ago, the Tupinambás indigenous warriors began the conquest of the coast of the region.

The archaeological remains of the Tupinambás villages studied in the region of Cabo Frio (Três Vendas in Araruama and Base Aero Naval in São Pedro da Aldeia) and also in the fishing camps (Praia Grande in Arraial do Cabo) show a more effective ecological adaptation than that of the pioneer nomadic bands. The deep biological knowledge of the regional landscape, in particular the Araruama Lagoon and the coastal seas very rich in natural resources, made the fish the food base of the tupinambás, reinforced by the capture of crustaceans, gastropods and mollusks.

The vegetation of sandbanks and mangroves of the seafront offered exceptional possibilities for collecting wild resources, which also led to the horticulture of several botanical species, highlighting the strong presence of cassava on the menu and the mastery of ceramic techniques. Hunting, an exclusive male activity, was very important as a complement of proteins in the diet of local groups.

The Tupinambá Indians baptized the region of Cabo Frio as Gecay, the only seasoning in the kitchen, made with crystallized coarse salt. On the land where the City of Cabo Frio would be established, four possible Tupinambá sites were found. The first two, Morro dos Índios and Duna Boavista, showed signs of being fishing and mollusc collection camps, while the third, Fonte do Itajuru, near the hill of the same name, was the only safe form of drinking and running water supply available in the sandbank.

In the aforementioned elevation next to the source, the current Morro da Guia, is the most important site in the region and one of the most relevant in prehistoric Brazil: the sanctuary of Tupinambá mythology, formed by the complex of sacred stones of Itajuru ("stone mouths" in Tupi-Guarani). On these blocks of black granite and very fine grain, with grooves and small circular depressions, the Indians told stories of their sorcerer heroes who taught the arts of living and loving life. When these civilizing heroes died, they became stars, until the sun decided to send them to itajuru, in the form of sacred stones, to be venerated by humanity. If they were broken or stolen, all the Indians would disappear from the face of the earth.

In 1503, the third Portuguese naval expedition to recognize the Brazilian coast suffered a shipwreck in Fernando de Noronha and the remaining fleet dispersed. Two ships, under the command of Américo Vesppúcio, followed the trip to Bahia and then to Cabo Frio. Next to the port of the bar of Araruama, the expeditionaries built and garrisoned with 24 "Christians" a fortress feitoria to explore the pau-brasil, abundant on the continental margin of the lagoon.

In 1512, this pioneering commercial-military establishment, which effected the Portuguese possession of the "new discovered land" and began the conquest on the American continent, and which was destroyed by the Tupinambás Indians due to the "many disorders and disagreements that occurred between them" in 1526. The old name of Cabo Frio was Gûatapytyba, which in Tupi means "a gathering of whelk". The French had been trafficking brazilwood and other goods with the Indians, on the Brazilian coast, since 1504. During the first three decades of the 16th century, they practically restricted their performance to the coast of the north-east region.

From 1540, because of the strict Portuguese naval policing in these seas, the French explored the coast and raised the natural resources of Cabo Frio. In 1556, they built a fortress-making for the exploitation of brazilwood, on the same islet previously used by the Portuguese, next to the port of the Araruama bar. The Cabofriense "Casa de Pedra" expanded and consolidated French rule on the south-east coast, starting with the fortress of Villegaignon in Rio de Janeiro, a year earlier.

The Cabo Frio War The so-called "Cabo Frio War" took place in 1575. The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Antônio Salema, gathered a powerful army with people from Guanabara, São Vicente and Espírito Santo, supported by a large catechized Tupiniquim troop. The officers and soldiers followed by land and sea, aiming to liquidate the last bastion of the Confederation of Tamoios and end the French rule that had already lasted twenty years in Cabo Frio.

After the siege and surrender of the Franco-Tamoi fortress, two Frenchmen, an Englishman and the Tupinambá shaman were sentenced to death and hanged, five hundred others captured were executed and approximately 1,500 enemy Indians were enslaved. The winners entered the hinterland, set fire to enemy villages, would justice more than ten thousand Indians who took the side of the French invaders and imprisoned many others. The others escaped to Serra do Mar and around Cabo Frio.

The low coastal lowland, from Macaé to Saquarema, due to the fight carried out against the Indians who took the side of the French, was transformed into a true desert and only moved with the sporadic passage of the Goitacazes who incursion through these lands in search of hunting and fishing.

Although the Portuguese had not colonized Cabo Frio after the war of 1575, they established an efficient naval blockade based in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

But between 1576 and 1615, with the loss of Portugal's independence to Spain, the port of Araruama was again frequented by French, English and Dutch ships in search of Brazilwood, also becoming the basis of piracy against Portuguese vessels that sought to bend the cable. After 1580, with the submission of Portugal, Spain redoubled the presence of these ships that carried the enemy flags of the Castilians.

Colonization As early as 1615, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Constantino Menelau, secretly associated himself with the English to traffic brazilwood in Cabo Frio. That same year, the governor was forced to fight Dutch ships docked in the region.

He returned to Cabo Frio to expel the English who had deceived him and built a fortress-making on the island, previously used by the Portuguese and French, next to the port of the bar of Araruama.

Finally, Constantine Menelaus received orders from King Philip III of Spain, to once again return to the region and establish a settlement. On November 13, 1615, next to the bar of Araruama, with the help of four hundred white men and catechized Indians, he raised the Fortress of Santo Inácio and founded the Village of Santa Helena do Cabo Frio, the seventh oldest in Brazil. Only kings founded cities, in case of grantees, military and subjects in general, villages were founded.

In 1616, Estêvão Gomes, a rich farmer and merchant of black slaves in Rio de Janeiro, was appointed captain-major of Cabo Frio and transferred the site of the colonial village to the current neighborhood of Passagem, rebaptising it as the city of Nossa Senhora da Assunção do Cabo Frio.(When the construction of the Mother Church was finished, the image had arrived for the enthronement in the church was that of Our Lady of the Assumption instead of the image of the patron saint St. Helena.). The dismantling of the Fortress of Santo Inácio also began, and simultaneously the construction of the Fort of São Mateus, completed in 1620. It also began the rapid distribution of continental lands to half a dozen friends and influential sponsors, favoring the formation of latifundia.

In 1617, Estêvão Gomes supported the establishment of the Indian Village of São Pedro do Cabo Frio by the Jesuits, which housed 500 catechized Tupiniquins, with the aim of avoiding European enemy landings on the coast. The maneuvers integrated by the indigenous infantry of São Pedro and the garrison of the fortress of the barra defeated attempts at English and Dutch landing in 1617, 1618 and 1630, opening the doors for the elevation of the city to the headquarters of the Royal Captaincy of Cabo Frio in 1619 and the conquest of northern Rio de Janeiro, with the submission of the Goitaca

The few inhabitants of the city began to dedicate themselves to fishing and the exploitation of the natural salt pans of the lagoon, while the continental landowners, especially Jesuits and Benedictines, established cattle farms in Bacaxá, Parati, São Mateus,Búzios and Macaé, where blacks and catechized Indians worked and dedicated themselves to agriculture, fishing,

Also in the year 1617, the Jesuit João Lobato asks for permission to settle five hundred Tupinambás Indians trafficked from Espírito Santo, at the tip of Jacuruna, where he then founded the Aldeia de São Pedro. In 1619, the government of the metropolis created the Royal Captaincy of Cabo Frio, which was directly subordinated to the colonial authority of Bahia and totally independent of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro.

The northern part of its territory, precisely where the Goitacazes lived, was then bought from the heir of the captaincy of São Tomé, whose limits went from the Paraíba do Sul River to the Macaé River; and the south-western part, which had already been conquered from São Vicente, during the foundation of the city of Cabo Frio, whose limits directed from Ponta Negra and S

The instability in the region lasts until 1625, when the governor of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, Martim Correa de Sá, donated a gigantic sesmaria located between the Macaé and Paraíba do Sul rivers then belonging to the jurisdiction of Cabo Frio to the so-called "Seven Captains".

In 1630, soon after the Tupinambás Indians, settled in the Village of São Pedro, burned some Goitacazes villages, simultaneously, the Portuguese of Espírito Santo react against the Tupinambás, a time when there is the division of the lands of the captaincy of Cabo Frio by the winners.

With the northern region unimpeded and as the Jesuits had not only a much sharper view and were also very well informed, they then began to demand their portion, and ask the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro for two sesmarias and soon they are served; being one located between the river of Ostras and the river Macaé and soon after they raise the farm aiming at the between the Macaé and Paraíba do Sul rivers, overlapping the limits of the sesmaria that had been granted to the "Seven Captains".

Between 1620 and 1630, the first Portuguese fishermen who settled in the village, withdrew looking for a better life in the bars of the Macaé and Paraíba do Sul rivers. At that time, around 1640, the liberation of Portugal from Spanish rule occurred. Even in 1645 the situation was still difficult and even the exiles, who came from Rio de Janeiro to populate the city

The City of Cabo Frio had gone unfeasible because the navigation bar was precarious, the fortress without garrison and weaponry, the royal monopoly prohibited the commercialization of brazilwood and salt, the collection of tithes was made by Rio de Janeiro, there was no Christian religious service, the captain-major concentrated the military, executive, legislative and judicial powers and the core of the

Beginning of urban development Between 1650 and 1660, the serious Portuguese salt crisis that replenished Brazil, drew metropolitan attention to the natural crystallization of the product in the Lagoa de Araruama. With this impulse given to the economy, a new urban centre was raised next to the current Porto Rocha Square: Direita street was torn (today Érico Coelho), the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção and the townhouse of the Chamber and the Jail were built, which formed Largo da Matriz, where the pillory was laid.

In the mid-1960s, the geopolitical conditions for the return of investments in the city of Cabo Frio crystallized. As early as 1663, the administration reunited again in Bahia. José Varella is reappointed to the position of chief captain of Cabo Frio and, for the first time, a chief mayor is appointed to the city. The new governor of Rio de Janeiro tries to prevent the inauguration of José Varella; the governor ends up being censored for not ingesting himself in the jurisdiction of Campos dos Goitacazes, belonging to Cabo Frio. Next, the Benedictines received an urban sesmaria giving rise to the neighborhood of São Bento.

The first sign of the move to the new urban centre began in 1663. The Benedictines, always well informed, began to seek to revive the landmarks of sesmaria received in the city of Cabo Frio for the construction of a convent, in 1620, and within this area they found an oven for the manufacture of lime among other improvements. A year later, in 1664, they ask for more land to raise the houses for the friars who come to populate the city. It is likely that the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption was not yet with its construction completed, because only by the royal letter of February 1666 the vicar Bento de Figueiredo came to assume his functions.

As the Benedictines did not build the houses for the settlement as they committed themselves, the Chamber retakes the land. In 1667 they argued that the city only at that time began to be populated and so they asked for a portion of land with eighteen fathoms on Rua Direita to raise the building for use by the Chamber.

Thirty years later, in 1696, the Franciscans inaugurated the Convent of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos, near the Fonte do Itajuru, consolidating the historical perimeter of the new administrative, religious and colonial center. At the end of the 17th century, the urban development of Cabo Frio again stalled. Basically for two reasons: the village of Indians of São Pedro, under the jurisdiction of the Jesuits and with a population of two thousand inhabitants could no longer prevent the landings of enemies in Búzios and, therefore, the exploitation of the natural salt pans, the first and greatest wealth of the colonizers, was strictly prohibited.

However, this order was not complied with leading to the trafficking of the marine product. The chamber then rented the beaches of Cabo and Búzios. Two mills were built for the production of brandy in Araruama and erected, by the Jesuits, the Campos Novos Farm, a future model agricultural establishment and important focus of colonization of the current District of Tamoios. Initially, the farm was destined to raise cattle for the supply of Rio de Janeiro butchers and gold mines in Minas Gerais.

Two centuries of expansion Already at the beginning of the 18th century, the Fort of São Mateus was garrisoned and rearmed. The defense of the captaincy also had a third of infantry, in addition to a cavalry regiment. The city of Cabo Frio expanded, being increased the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, built the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Guia in Morro do Itajuru and the Church of São Benedito in Largo da Passagem. In the city, there lived about 1,500 inhabitants in 350 houses, while another ten thousand inhabitants spread throughout the captaincy, half of which were made up of black slaves.

This urban expansion reflected the success of several economic activities that were exported to Rio de Janeiro, in general by Barra de Araruama. In agriculture, the plantations of inlid, coxonilha, vegetables, sugar cane, cassava, beans and corn stood out, whose largest productions were from the Campos Novos farm, which also continued to raise cattle. Despite the Portuguese repression, salt production was still abundant.

In Arraial do Cabo, trawling flourished and the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios was built. In Armação dos Búzios, between 1720 and 1770, whales were hunted and oil was manufactured. In the deep-sea fisheries and inside the lagoon, fish and shrimp were caught. In the barreiros and in the lyrias bricks and tiles were produced, in the forests and sawmills noble woods were felled and in sawmills a large number of taboados were manufactured.

The Chamber of Cabo Frio enthusiastically supported the independence of Brazil in 1822, making itself represented in the festivities in honor of Dom Pedro I, being then rewarded: Major Engineer Bellegard, sent by the imperial government, built a lighthouse on the island of Cabo Frio, to avoid shipwrecks such as that of the frigate "Thetis", and also lifted the trading sessions of the

On their own, Bellegard and other citizens erected the Charitas building, intended to house and educate newborns of poor single mothers, who were left in a circle at the door, during the night where they were collected anonymously. Finally, Bellegard designed and tore the first streets of the city of Cabo Frio, thus promoting the first urbanization plan of the city.

Imperial Visit The visit that Dom Pedro II made to the city in 1847 narrowed the special relations that Cabo Frio maintained with the imperial government, having been donated an amount for the construction of the coverage of the Fonte do Itajuru and another to Charitas, with the aim of facilitating its maintenance and installing an infirmary, which proved to be very useful on the occasion of the devastating epidemics of

The Emperor visited the model establishment of the Salinas Perynas, encouraged by himself, owned by the German Linddemberg, who put into practice new methods of mineral production, starting the modern salt park of Araruama.

Black question Two issues related to slaves shook Cabo Frio throughout the century. The first refers to the growth of escapes, murders of overseers and rebellions of blacks, resulting in the formation of quilombos that overwled the white lords, despite the action of the bush captains. The second concerns the prohibition of the transatlantic slave trade and the flourishing smuggling that derived from it.

The beaches of Peró, in Cabo Frio, José Gonçalves and Rasa, in Búzios, have become clandestine landing points of this human trade. The English navy, in flagrant disregard of Brazilian laws, promoted repression of trafficking and even seized slave ships on the coast and landed marines in Cabo Frio and Búzios.

In the final decades of the 19th century, the bar and former port of Araruama received new improvements from the imperial government, giving way to larger ships and having the anchorage expanded, essential factors for the increase of regional export. Some critical silting of the Itajuru Canal were dredged and channeled, on the private initiative of the French engineer Leger Palmer, allowing

Productive activities The capture and salting of fish and shrimp remained stable, in the same way as the manufacture of tiles, etaboado bricks. The emergence of shipbuilding and the lime industry (made with lagoon shells) opened up new regional economic prospects. The abolition of slavery in 1888 and the consequent proclamation of the Republic the following year disorganized some productive activities of Cabo Frio, such as coffee agriculture, which was replaced by small-scale livestock.

The former slaves of the rural area regrouped and founded a village on Rasa Beach, in Búzios, starting to work in fishing and horticulture themselves, while the slaves of the City of Cabo Frio took possession and founded the village of Abyssinia, which later gave rise to the current neighborhood of Vila Nova, working on the supply of charcoal to the former lords

Salt production was the most notable resource in the region, however, it was not affected. A few years ago the slave arm had been replaced by Portuguese immigrants from Aveiro, who brought and adapted consecrated artisanal techniques, resulting in an increase in the quality and quantity of artificial marine crystallization of Araruama.

Although fishing activity remained competitive, especially after the introduction of trawlers in the catch on the high seas, until just over the 20th century, the Araruama salt park dominated regional economic production, whose urban reflexes were the installation of the equipped Santa Izabel Hospital and the attraction of the private initiative for the exploitation of the electricity system in the city.

The Maricá Railway, the improvements in the port of Arraial do Cabo and the subsequent inauguration of the Amaral Peixoto Highway contributed to the increase in salt production and efficient transport to the capital of the Republic and other important consumer centres in the country. The peak of sectoral development occurred in the 1960s, with the installation of two large salt processing plants in Cabo Frio, and with the construction of the industrial complex of the National Alkali Company, in Arraial do Cabo, which opened saline pools and began to extract shells in the lagoon for the production of barrels.

The growing industrialization of the municipality attracted numerous Brazilian workers and gave rise to the new neighborhood of São Cristóvão. Alberto Lamego, in his book "O Homem e a Restinga", analyzes the trends and predilections of the inhabitants of the region, thus portraying their professional passions, in which fishing has a marked predominance, because it is precisely one of the main riches of the region, given the increase in tourism due to fishing as a sport.

The forests and capons of the sands provide excellent wood charcoal. The sandbank adapts favorably to agriculture, whose main production is still incipient, attending only to local consumption; thus livestock, due to its essence, lends itself magnificently to good and resistant products.

As for the mineral field, there are natural products of great economic value such as limestone, salt, among others. There is an abundance of sand suitable to be used in the manufacture of porcelain and fine glass, especially monazite, which is common in the region. The great mineral wealth of Cabo Frio was unquestionably salt.

From the 1990s, the city boosted its production of beachwear, becoming a national and international reference. Today, Cabo Frio is the main producer of beachwear in the country, with export to several international centers. Rua dos Biquínis, in the neighborhood of Gamboa, was transformed into an open-air mall, where several stores sell, at factory prices, clothes and accessories for the beach, such as bikinis, swimwear and cangas; creating, especially in the summer, a series of temporary jobs.

Tourist attraction In the 1940s, it was observed that the Itajuru Channel was dredged and rectified to facilitate navigation. Its margin near the bar was occupied by port facilities, including fishing stations, salt warehouses, lime factories and shipyards. The two old urban centres had joined together and new streets and blocks were created as factors for tourist occupation along the, until then, abandoned Praia do Forte.

The improvement of access roads, exceptional climatic conditions, extremely attractive cultural natural heritage and socio-cultural transformations stimulated weekly leisure and tourism of "bath beaches" in the mid-1940s. In the beginning, it was a point of attraction for rich adventurers from the City of Rio de Janeiro, of social gathering of a privileged few, practitioners of water and underwater sports.

Then, Cabo Frio became a place of tourist attraction for cariocas and Minas Gerais, secondary residence facilities, nautical clubs, night amusements, hotels, restaurants, commercial and supply services. The inauguration of the Rio-Niterói Bridge, in 1973, gave rise to the current phase of mass tourism.

Although the city has expanded to the continental border, where tourist allotments and a belt of poor immigrants were established, Cabo Frio has been receiving federal, state, municipal and private natural and cultural investments in the road infrastructure of water, electricity, communication, education and health, becoming, mainly from the beginning of the 2000s, a university pole, with the arrival of higher education institutions, attracting students

The floating population increases about ten times in the summer season. The salt park shows a sign of exhaustion, due to competition from the north-eastern product and real estate speculation on the banks of the Araruama lagoon, while fishing is overloaded by excessive capture effort and the decrease in marine environmental quality. In the 1980s the discovery and exploration of oil in the so-called Campos Basin opened a new front of regional development. The extremely productive wells, which are located in front of the Cabofriense coast, are responsible for the payment of substantial resources from the royalties to the coffers of the Municipality, which boosted the development and urbanization of the city from the 1990s.