Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

To the south of the Morro do Urubu and Morro do Leme the world-famed beach of Copacabana extends for 4km/2.5mi. The first section is called the Praia do Leme. This 100-year-old district is the best known part of Rio. Just off the beach, on Avenida Atlântica, Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana and the neighboring streets, are some of the city's best hotels, restaurants and night spots, and on the wide sidewalks are numbers of street cafés, their tables packed closely together.

Picture - Coastline of Copacabana as seen from Sugarloaf, Rio de Janeiro.

Picture - Beach and undulating walk in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.

Picture - Soccer net on the beach in Copacabana.

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Related Attractions

Copacabana Palace Hotel

The Copacabana Palace, built in the 1920s and now protected as a national monument, conjures up the power, the wealth and the elegant life-style of the days when Rio was capital of Brazil.

Copacabana Fort

At the far end of the beach, on Praça Coronel Eugànio Franco, is Copacabana Fort, which dates only from 1914. Since 1987 it has housed the Artillery Museum, which along with the Casa de Deodoro (Praça da República) and the Casa de Osório (Rua Riachuelo, Centro) forms part of the Army Historical Museum. Here, beside early 20th century gun-turrets for big guns, are modern armored cars and rocket-launchers. Among the other exhibits are two fragments of the Brazilian flag with which the rebel soldiers garrisoning the fort advanced against government forces in 1922, when eighteen of them were mown down. They are commemorated by a monument on Avenida Atlântica.

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