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Rio to Petrópolis Driving Tour: The Imperial Serra, Palácio Quitandinha & Pedro II's Summer City
Welcome to the climb from Rio de Janeiro's hot coastal plain into the summer world of Brazil's emperors.
Over the next 16 miles (26 km), we'll drive the uphill side of the Washington Luís highway, the BR-040, through the rainforest of the Serra de Petrópolis, and into the city that Dom Pedro II named for himself.
Along the way, you'll hear about an emperor who fell for the telephone, a president who said that to govern is to open roads, a casino palace that hosted Harry Truman, an aviation pioneer with a right-foot staircase, and a famous writer's last refuge. Between the stories, there's a song born in these hills, and Brazil's oldest beer.
Your directions will come as short spoken cues just before each turn.
We'll finish at Praça da Liberdade, in the historic heart of Petrópolis.
Drive carefully on the mountain curves, and let the serra rise around you.
Top landmarks and attractions included in this English self-guided 45m driving tour in Petrópolis
For the best experience, begin at the tour's recommended starting point and follow the stops in order.
Want to start somewhere else? Simply use Start At on the tour screen, before tapping Start Tour, to begin from any stop.
Need to detour or skip a stop along the way? Tap Tour Assistant () to use Force Play, Skip, and Back, for full flexibility.
Route Preview
Places (POIs) visited during this tour
Place 1
Here We Go: Up the Emperor's Mountain Recommended starting point
Distance: 0.00 mi
Rua Pr. Manoel Avelino de Souza, 2832-2834 - Mantiquira, Duque de Caxias - RJ, 25250-000, Brazil
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Here we go! Our road trip up the Serra de Petrópolis begins right here, on the uphill side of the BR-040, just past the Xerém toll.
Look ahead at that green wall of mountains. Those mountains are why an emperor built a city.
Rio de Janeiro, down on the coast behind us, can be brutally hot in summer. And in the 1800s, summer also brought yellow fever.
On February 6, 1830, Brazil's first emperor, Dom Pedro I, bought a run-down farm up in these mountains, the Fazenda do Córrego Seco, the Dry Creek Farm. He dreamed of a summer palace, high above the heat.
He never built it. In 1831, he gave up the throne and sailed back to Europe, leaving behind his five-year-old son.
That boy grew up to be Dom Pedro II, and he took up his father's dream. On March 16, 1843, he signed the decree that founded Petrópolis, "Pedro's city." A German-born engineer, Major Júlio Frederico Koeler, drew up the plan for a palace and a whole town around it.
Over the next 16 miles (26 km), we'll climb into that town, through some of the last great mountain rainforest near Rio.
Stay on this highway as it starts to climb.
Place 2
The Washington Luís: To Govern Is to Open Roads
Distance: 1.38 mi
Rod. Washington Luiz, 5226 - Santo Antônio, Duque de Caxias - RJ, Brazil
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Here's a curious thing about this mountain road. The way up and the way down are two completely separate highways.
We're on the pista de subida, the climbing lane of BR-040. It's named the Washington Luís highway, after the president who opened it on August 25, 1928.
Washington Luís loved roads. Years earlier, he had campaigned for office in São Paulo with a slogan that Brazilian politicians still quote: "Governar é abrir estradas." To govern is to open roads.
This was the showpiece. For the first time, a motor car could climb from the coastal plain to the emperor's mountains on a modern highway.
It didn't save him. In 1930, the Great Depression crushed coffee prices, and with them his support. Just three weeks before his term was due to end, a revolution forced him out of office, and soon Getúlio Vargas took power.
His road outlived his presidency. Traffic heading down to Rio now uses a separate road, opened later. When the trees open, you may glimpse that other ribbon of asphalt across the valley.
The curves come thick and fast from here, and the views come in pieces. Enjoy them when they appear.
Place 3
Águas de Março: A Song Born in These Hills
Distance: 1.24 mi
BR-040, 4946 - Santo Antônio, Duque de Caxias - RJ, Brazil
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Here's a song that was born in these mountains.
In March 1972, Tom Jobim, the composer of The Girl from Ipanema, was at his family's country place at Poço Fundo, in the hills beyond Petrópolis.
It was the end of summer, the rainy season. And a song came to him, almost as a list.
"É pau, é pedra, é o fim do caminho." It's a stick, it's a stone, it's the end of the road.
A stump, a nail, a bird's nest, a snake, a cut on the foot. The rains of March, closing the summer.
That song is Águas de Março, the Waters of March. In 1974 he recorded it with the singer Elis Regina, as a playful duet, the two of them laughing their way through it. Many Brazilians call it the greatest Brazilian song ever recorded.
Jobim loved this part of the state. Years before, some say he wrote parts of Chega de Saudade, the first great bossa nova song, at the same country place.
So if a sudden shower catches you on this road, you'll know exactly what to sing.
Place 4
Air Fit for an Emperor
Distance: 0.28 mi
R. A, 94 - Vila Sao Luis, Duque de Caxias - RJ, 25250-000, Brazil
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Feel the air start to change as we climb.
Petrópolis sits about 2,600 feet (800 meters) above the sea. Its summers are noticeably cooler than Rio's, cool enough that an emperor could keep working through the hottest months.
In the 1800s, the imperial court came up here every summer to escape the heat, and the yellow fever that swept through the coastal city. Diplomats followed the court. So did the rich. For a few months a year, this mountain town was the summer capital of the empire.
All around us is the Atlantic Forest, the coastal rainforest of Brazil. It holds the moisture and the shade, and on many mornings, cloud sits right in the trees.
These mountains are part of the Serra do Mar, the Sea Range, which runs for hundreds of miles along the coast. This stretch, around Petrópolis, is known as the Serra da Estrela, the Star Range.
The rain that feeds this forest is also its danger. Heavy summer storms can bring landslides down these slopes, and the city at the top knows that better than anywhere.
Place 5
Pedro II, the Emperor Who Loved the Telephone
Distance: 1.56 mi
Rod. Washington Luiz, 9829 - Centro, Petrópolis - RJ, Brazil
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The man who built that summer city was one of the most curious rulers of the 1800s.
Dom Pedro II became emperor at the age of five, and was crowned at 15. He reigned for 58 years. And he was happiest, people said, not on a throne, but in a library.
He spoke many languages. He traded letters with Louis Pasteur, Richard Wagner and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
In 1876, he became the first emperor ever to visit the United States, for the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. There, he stopped at a booth where a young inventor was showing off a strange new device. The inventor was Alexander Graham Bell, and the device was the telephone.
Pedro II was fascinated. He is said to have been the very first person to buy stock in the Bell Telephone Company. And one of the first telephones ever installed in a private home was put into his palace up in Petrópolis.
Thirteen years later, in 1889, the army overthrew him, and Brazil became a republic. He died in exile in Paris.
His summer palace is now the Imperial Museum, just a short drive from the end of our tour.
Place 6
By Boat, Mule and Rack Railway
Distance: 0.21 mi
BR-040, Rodovia Washington Luís, Petrópolis - RJ, Brazil
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Here's a surprise. The emperors never drove up this highway.
The emperor in this story is Dom Pedro II, Brazil's second and last emperor. He took the throne at just five years old, after his father, Pedro I, abdicated, and he went on to rule for almost 50 years, until 1889.
Pedro II was a bearded, book-loving monarch who was crazy about science and new inventions. Every summer, he escaped Rio's heat for his palace up here in Petrópolis.
But getting here was an adventure: a boat, a train, and then a long, bumpy climb by carriage.
First came the water. From Rio, travelers sailed across Guanabara Bay to a little river port at the foot of these mountains.
Then, in 1854, a self-made businessman named Irineu Evangelista de Sousa opened Brazil's very first railway there. It ran just 9 miles, about 14.5 kilometers, across the flat plain to the base of the serra.
The emperor was so delighted that he made him the Baron of Mauá.
But the mountain itself still had to be climbed the hard way, by horse and carriage.
Finally, in 1883, Pedro II opened a railway that went straight up the slope. It was so steep that a toothed rail in the middle of the track gripped the train and hauled it up the mountain.
For about 80 years, that little mountain train was the link between Petrópolis and Rio. It closed in the 1960s, and the highways took over.
So today, we're following an old imperial idea on a modern road: escape the heat and spend the summer in the mountains.
Place 7
German Settlers and Brazil's Oldest Beer
Distance: 1.51 mi
BR-040, 5697 - Centro, Petrópolis - RJ, Brazil
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On June 29, 1845, a group of German settlers arrived at Petrópolis to help build the new imperial town.
Many came from the Rhineland. They cleared the forest, cut the roads, and dug the canals that still run through the city. And they gave their new districts names from home: Bingen, Mosela, Ingelheim, Westfália.
They brought something else from home: a taste for beer.
In 1853, in Petrópolis, a German named Henrique Kremer began brewing a beer in a small family business. That beer became Bohemia, and it's considered the oldest beer brand in Brazil.
Today Bohemia belongs to a huge international brewing group, and it's sold all over the country. But Petrópolis still claims it. The original brewery building in the city center now houses a beer museum, the Cervejaria Bohemia, with tours and tastings.
Petrópolis calls itself an imperial city. You could just as well call it a German mountain town. You'll hear it in the street names and the family names.
Place 8
Major Koeler's City of Rivers
Distance: 1.26 mi
BR-040, Rodovia Washington Luís, Petrópolis - RJ, Brazil
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The steepest curves are easing now. We're coming up into the highlands that Pedro II named for himself.
Soon you'll start to see the first rooftops of Petrópolis among the trees.
The city below us was planned on paper before anyone lived here. Major Koeler, the German-born engineer, laid it out along the rivers. He kept the houses facing the water, and he kept the hilltops wooded, to protect the springs.
Each district was a quarteirão, a quarter, many of them named for a German region. The main streets follow the canals, with the water running down the middle, between rows of trees.
It's a different idea of a city from most of Brazil, and it shows. Many visitors say Petrópolis feels more like a European spa town.
But the rivers that Koeler made the heart of his plan can also be dangerous. On February 15, 2022, a storm dropped more than a month's worth of rain on the city in a few hours. Landslides and floods killed more than 200 people. The city is still rebuilding.
Ahead, a very different kind of palace waits beside a lake.
Place 9
Palácio Quitandinha: A Casino That Hosted Truman
Distance: 0.64 mi
Av. Ayrton Senna, 380 - Quitandinha, Petrópolis - RJ, 25650-340, Brazil
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At the corner just ahead, look left, across the lake. The huge white building with dark timber framing on the far shore is the Palácio Quitandinha. The road turns right there, so the view is quick.
It looks like a royal residence. In fact, it was built to be the biggest casino hotel in South America.
The builder was Joaquim Rolla, a businessman from Minas Gerais who made a fortune in casinos. He opened it in 1944, with more than 400 rooms, vast ballrooms and a lake in the shape of the map of Brazil.
It didn't last long. In 1946, the new president, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, banned gambling across Brazil, and the casino closed.
Then the palace got a second act. In 1947, it hosted a conference of the countries of the Americas. On September 2, 1947, President Harry Truman flew in and spoke at the closing session, as the delegates finished the Rio Treaty, a promise that an attack on one would be treated as an attack on all.
Today Quitandinha is part apartment building and part cultural center, open to visitors.
Place 10
Santos-Dumont: Airships, a Wristwatch and a Right-Foot Staircase
Distance: 0.05 mi
R. Cel. Veiga, 1767 - Valparaíso, Petrópolis - RJ, 25655-157, Brazil
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Welcome to Petrópolis.
Petrópolis was home to one of the most famous Brazilians of all time, a man every Brazilian child learns about: Alberto Santos-Dumont.
He was born in Minas Gerais on July 20, 1873, and grew up on his father's coffee plantation, obsessed with its machines. As a young man he moved to Paris, and there he became a celebrity, flying airships he designed himself, low over the rooftops.
On October 23, 1906, in Paris, he flew a strange box-kite airplane called the 14-bis. It took off under its own power in front of a crowd and official witnesses. Brazilians count it as the first true airplane flight, and they'll politely argue the point with the Wright brothers.
He also changed what you wear on your wrist. In 1904, his friend, the jeweler Louis Cartier, made him a watch with a leather strap, so he could check the time without letting go of the controls. Men's wristwatches soon became fashionable.
In 1918 he built a small house here in Petrópolis, on a steep hillside, called A Encantada, the Enchanted One. Its front steps are cut in alternating paddle shapes, so you can only start climbing with your right foot.
The house is a museum today, close to the end of our tour.
Place 11
Stefan Zweig's Last Refuge
Distance: 0.83 mi
Rua Coronel Veiga, Valparaíso, Petrópolis - RJ, Brazil
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As we make our way to Praça da Liberdade, the final point of interest on our trip, we turn to a writer who came to these mountains in search of peace.
Stefan Zweig was Austrian, Jewish, and in the 1930s, one of the most widely read authors in the world. When the Nazis rose to power, his books were burned, and he went into exile: first England, then New York, and finally Brazil.
He adored this country. His book Brazil, Land of the Future, published in 1941, gave Brazil a nickname that has followed it ever since, sometimes with a wink.
That same year, Zweig and his wife, Lotte, rented a small house in Petrópolis’s Valparaíso neighborhood. Here, he worked on his memoir, The World of Yesterday.
But even amid the peace of these mountains, he could not escape his despair over the war and the destruction of the European world he had known.
In February 1942, Stefan and Lotte died by suicide in their home.
Today, that house is a museum, Casa Stefan Zweig, preserving his legacy and honoring the European exiles who found refuge in Brazil.
Ahead, Praça da Liberdade awaits, where we’ll bring our journey through Petrópolis to a close.
Place 12
Praça da Liberdade: Journey's End in Pedro's City
Distance: 0.47 mi
191 - Condomínio do Edifício Serrano - Praça Rui Barbosa, 137 - Centro, Petrópolis - RJ, 25685-050, Brazil
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You made it!
This is Praça da Liberdade, Liberty Square, in the heart of Petrópolis, and this is where our drive ends. Find a legal parking space along the square.
Look ahead and to the right, down Avenida Koeler. The neo-Gothic spire at the far end is the Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara.
This square has a proud name. In 1888, the year Brazil finally abolished slavery, it was renamed Praça da Liberdade. Petrópolis had campaigned to free its own enslaved people even before the national law was signed.
Think back over the climb. Pedro I's dream farm in 1830, and his son's city in 1843. The president who said that to govern is to open roads. A casino palace that hosted Harry Truman. Santos-Dumont and his right-foot staircase, and Stefan Zweig's last refuge.
Now it's time to explore on foot. Stroll along Avenida Koeler, with its canal and old mansions. Visit the cathedral, where Pedro II and his wife, Teresa Cristina, are buried. Visit the Imperial Museum, his summer palace, which is closed on Mondays. Climb the steps of A Encantada, or taste a Bohemia at the old brewery.
Thank you for touring with UCPlaces. Safe travels, obrigada, e boa viagem!
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Download the app (Android or iOS), purchase the tour (either here on the website, or from within the app).
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How does the tour work?
UCPlaces acts as your personal tour guide, providing self-guided audio tours fully navigated within our app using GPS-based navigation. You won't need to switch between external navigation apps.
Whenever you approach a point of interest (POI) on the tour, our app will automatically play the relevant audio story at the right time and place.
If you start the tour before reaching the first POI, the app will navigate you to the starting point and then begin the tour.
How is this more convenient than a traditional tour?
UCPlaces offers an innovative and flexible way to explore exciting destinations on your terms. Here are some key advantages over traditional tours:
No need to commit upfront or purchase in advance; buy a tour only when you're ready to go.
Walk at your own pace.
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Take the tour in your preferred language.
Start, stop and continue the tour whenever you want.
Returning to the same destination? Take the tour again, and again, and again... And bring a friend!
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What's included?
A self-guided audio tour taken via the UCPlaces app [iOS (iPhone) / Apple CarPlay / Android / Android Auto].
Tour route map and in-app GPS navigation (via the UCPlaces app).
Audio stories for places visited during the tour.
Apple CarPlay connection (iOS users) and Android Auto connection (Android users); for a seamless driving tour experience.
What's NOT included?
Earphones (highly recommended).
Smartphone.
Any kind of transportation (including tickets and passes).
Tickets to the attractions on your tour.
Food and drinks
Physical tour guide.
Have any questions about this tour? Or a general travel / self-guided tours question? That's completely natural
How long does this tour take?
Most travelers complete this tour in approximately 0.5 to 1 hours, depending on pace, time spent at each stop, and optional detours. Having said that, please remember that self-guided tours are extremly flexible (you can start, pause, continue anytime) and everyone has their own pace.
What does this tour include?
This self-guided driving tour includes 12 stops, covering top attractions such as Here We Go: Up the Emperor's Mountain, The Washington Luís: To Govern Is to Open Roads, Águas de Março: A Song Born in These Hills, Air Fit for an Emperor, Pedro II, the Emperor Who Loved the Telephone.
Where does the tour start?
The tour starts at Here We Go: Up the Emperor's Mountain (Address: Rua Pr. Manoel Avelino de Souza, 2832-2834 - Mantiquira, Duque de Caxias - RJ, 25250-000, Brazil). You can begin the tour there or join from any stop along the route.
What type of tour is this?
This is a self-guided driving tour designed to be completed by car, covering scenic routes, city highlights and optional key stops.
Can I do this tour at my own pace?
Yes, this is a self-guided driving tour, so you can start anytime and explore at your own pace. You can pause, skip stops, or spend more time at places that interest you. You can even split it into multiple days. Explore however feels right for you. The only vaiables that might affect your pace are speed limits and traffic congestion.
Do I need a car for this tour?
Yes, this is a driving tour, designed to be completed by car, with stops spread across different locations connected by a driving route.
Do I need anything in order to take the tour?
There are two things that you need - 1. A mobile phone (with the UCPlaces app installed and active location services, and a cellular data plan with a decent signal for downloading the tour). 2. A car. Here are some recommendations for a great experience: 1. Make sure your phone is fully charged and bring a charging cable for your car. 2. Connect your phone to the car speaker system via bluetooth or use our CarPlay/Android Auto option for the best experience.
How will I navigate from point to point during the tour?
The tour uses GPS-based navigation through the UCPlaces app, with automatic audio playback and step-by-step directions between stops. This works great either directly from your phone, or while connected to your car's multimedia system and using our CarPlay or Android Auto options. Just follow the route and listen to the audio guide. Use the resume feature to continue from where you recently stopped (or closed the app). Easily skip or go back to stops.
What known landmarks and main sites does this tour have?
The top landmarks and main sites on this tour include Palácio Quitandinha, Praça da Liberdade, Stefan Zweig's Last Refuge and Santos-Dumont. In total, the tour has 12 points of interest along the route.
Is this tour suitable for families or groups?
Yes, self-guided tours are ideal for families and small groups, allowing everyone to explore comfortably without being tied to a fixed schedule.
What makes a self-guided tour better than a guided tour?
Self-guided tours are more flexible, affordable, and personalized. You can avoid crowds, choose your pace, and focus on the stops that interest you most.
I installed the app and it's now asking for GPS and media access permissions, why?
The app is your tour-guide, it needs to know where you are located on the map to be able to trigger the points of interest. It also needs access to audio and media files to provide you with this experience.
What happens if there are unexpected roadblocks or navigation issues?
We have been working hard to deliver a great experience. Though you may run into unexpected obstacles (the world is constantly changing), our app has multiple features and mechanisms in place to help you overcome them, including: AI assistance, force play an audio if you can't reach the stop, skip or return to stops, automatic rerouting and more.
Can I take the tour in my language?
Though all of our tours are primarily in English, many tours are multilingual (including: Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Hebrew, French, Arabic and more...). The tour language options depend on the specific tour - You can easily check which languages are available in the tour screen!
Driving tour
) to use Force Play, Skip, and Back, for full flexibility.
