National Observatory (Brazil)

Vasco da Gama is a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is named after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. It was founded in 1998, which was the centenary year of professional football club Vasco da Gama's foundation.

Colégio Pedro II is a traditional federal public school, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the third oldest active college in the country, after Ginásio Pernambucano and Atheneu Norte-Riograndense. The school was created in honor of its past patron, the emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II. Founded during the regency of the Marquis of Olinda, Pedro de Araújo Lima, it was part of a larger civilization project of the Brazilian Empire, which included the foundation of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute and the Public Archive of the Empire, its contemporaries. Others, however, point to limitations of this view, suggesting other motivations for the creation of the college, mainly by pointing out that the transformation of the Seminary of São Joaquim into the College of Pedro II was based on the idea of the Reform of the Constitution in 1834, of building a model to be followed, since the provinces were not able to establish their local education system by themselves. Another group of authors, such as Circe Bittencourt, have established views that dialogue both perspectives. The format of the Colégio explains a lot of the Imperial civilizing plan: an education that prioritized a good education, but that covered a small part of society, which was sufficient to the Empire's project, insofar as it filled the basic cadres of the bureaucratic and ideological system to the country's leaders, with a curriculum that served these interests, not being so concerned with the formation of a broad mass of minimally trained workers, as would occur at later times in Brazil and already occurred in some places in Europe. It has 12 campuses in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhoods of Centro, São Cristóvão (3 units), Humaitá (2 units), Tijuca (2 units), Engenho Novo (2 units) and Realengo (2 units). It also has a campus in Niterói and another in Duque de Caxias.

São Cristóvão (officially named Imperial de São Cristóvão) is a traditional neighborhood in north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Estádio Vasco da Gama, also known as Estádio São Januário, owing to its location on a street of the same name, is the home ground of Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama. Its facade is listed by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage. It is located in the Vasco da Gama neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a hill near the National Observatory of Brazil. Because of its position it is often referred to as Estádio da Colina (Hill's Stadium) which in turn has given Vasco the nickname of Gigante da Colina (Hill's Giant). It is one of the few Association Football specific stadiums in the world which has both team benches and coaching areas behind the goal line at the same end of the field. The stadium had a capacity of 24,584 and it was inaugurated on April 21, 1927, with the presence of Washington Luís, Brazilian president in that time. The first event held in the stadium was a match between Vasco and Santos, which Santos won. The stadium stands as the biggest private venue in the State of Rio de Janeiro. This stadium has also historic importance, because Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas used it many times to do deliver speeches to the Brazilian people. Vargas announced the first Brazilian work laws on the tribune of São Januário. Vasco da Gama, owner of São Januário, is the only major football club in Rio de Janeiro to have its private stadium. Other major clubs (Flamengo, Fluminense, and Botafogo) rent their stadiums (Flamengo and Fluminense play at Maracanã which is owned by the state of Rio de Janeiro, while Botafogo plays at Estádio Nilton Santos which is owned by the city of Rio de Janeiro).

The Trapicheiros River is a river of Rio de Janeiro state in southeastern Brazil.

The Maracanã River of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese: [mɐɾakɐˈnɐ̃]), which means parrot-like in Tupi–Guarani, is a river located in Rio de Janeiro state in southeastern Brazil.

Jornal do Brasil, widely known as JB, is a daily newspaper published by Editora JB in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The paper was founded in 1891 and is the third oldest extant Brazilian paper, after the Diário de Pernambuco and O Estado de S. Paulo. On 31 August 2010 it became a digital newspaper, folding its print edition until 25 February 2018, when it was printed again.

The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was a pluricontinental monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony named State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil with the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of the Algarves, constituting a single state consisting of three kingdoms. The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed in 1815, following the transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil during the Napoleonic invasions of Portugal, and it continued to exist for about one year after the court's return to Europe, being de facto dissolved in 1822, when Brazil proclaimed its independence. The dissolution of the United Kingdom was accepted by Portugal and formalized de jure in 1825, when Portugal recognized the independent Empire of Brazil. During its period of existence the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves did not correspond to the whole of the Portuguese Empire: rather, the United Kingdom was the transatlantic metropolis that controlled the Portuguese colonial empire, with its overseas possessions in Africa and Asia. Thus, from the point of view of Brazil, the elevation to the rank of a kingdom and the creation of the United Kingdom represented a change in status, from that of a colony to that of an equal member of a political union. In the wake of the Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Portugal, attempts to compromise the autonomy and even the unity of Brazil, led to the breakdown of the union.

Paço de São Cristóvão (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpasu dʒi sɐ̃w kɾisˈtɔvɐ̃w]; English: Palace of Saint Christopher; also known as Palácio Imperial or Palácio Imperial de São Cristóvão) was an imperial palace located in the Quinta da Boa Vista park in the Imperial Neighbourhood of São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It served as residence to the Portuguese Royal Family and later to the Brazilian Imperial Family until 1889, when the country became a republic through a coup d'état deposing Emperor Pedro II. The palace briefly served as a public building by the provisional government for the constituent assembly of the first republican constitution. It housed the major part (92.5%) of the collections of the National Museum of Brazil, which, together with the building, were largely destroyed by a fire on 2 September 2018.

The Rio de Janeiro Zoological Garden (Portuguese: Jardim Zoológico do Rio de Janeiro) is a zoo located in the district of São Cristóvão, in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The institution has among its main objectives the development of environmental and educational activities, based on the animals of its collection—which consists mainly of fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The zoo is housed in a 55,000-square-meter park at the back of Quinta da Boa Vista. Its collection currently has over 1,300 animals. There are 350 species, many of them rare and endangered, such as the Lear's macaw, harpy eagle, broad-snouted caiman, maned wolf, golden-headed lion tamarin, anteater and the king vulture. In addition to native species of the Amazon Region, the Pantanal and the Brazilian Cerrado, there are also other animals from other countries, such as the rhinoceros and the American brown bear.

The Quinta da Boa Vista (English: "Estate of the Good View") is a public park of great historical importance located in the São Cristóvão neighbourhood, in the North zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The park was part of the gardens of the São Cristóvão Palace, the residence of the King of Portugal and then the Emperors of Brazil in the 19th century and the home of the Zoological Garden of Rio de Janeiro, with over 2000 species of animals. The building of the old palace hosted the National Museum, with collections on natural history, ethnology and archaeology.

The National Museum of Brazil (Portuguese: Museu Nacional) is the oldest scientific institution of Brazil. It is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where it is installed in the Paço de São Cristóvão (Saint Christopher's Palace), which is inside the Quinta da Boa Vista. The main building was originally the residence of the House of Braganza in colonial Brazil, as the Portuguese royal family between 1808 and 1821 and then as the Brazilian imperial family between 1822 and 1889. After the monarchy was deposed, it hosted the Republican Constituent Assembly from 1889 to 1891 before being assigned to the use of the museum in 1892. The building was listed as Brazilian National Heritage in 1938 and was largely destroyed by a fire in 2018. Founded by King João VI of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves on 6 June 1818, under the name of "Royal Museum", the institution was initially housed at the Campo de Santana park, where it exhibited the collections incorporated from the former House of Natural History, popularly known as Casa dos Pássaros ("House of the Birds"), created in 1784 by the Viceroy of Brazil, Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 4th Count of Figueiró, as well as collections of mineralogy and zoology. The museum foundation was intended to address the interests of promoting the socioeconomic development of the country by the diffusion of education, culture, and science. In the 19th century, the institution was already established as the most important South American museum of its type. In 1946, it was incorporated into the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.The National Museum held a vast collection with more than 20 million objects, one of the largest collections of natural history and anthropological artifacts in the world, encompassing some of the most important material records regarding natural science and anthropology in Brazil, as well as numerous items that came from other regions of the world and were produced by several cultures and ancient civilizations. Built-up over more than two centuries through expeditions, excavations, acquisitions, donations and exchanges, the collection was subdivided into seven main nuclei: geology, paleontology, botany, zoology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology. The collection was the principal basis for the research conducted by the academic departments of the museum – which are responsible for carrying out activities in all the regions of the Brazilian territory and several places of the world, including the Antarctic continent. The museum holds one of the largest scientific libraries of Brazil, with over 470,000 volumes and 2,400 rare works.In the area of education, the museum offers specializations, extension and post-graduation courses in several fields of the knowledge, in addition to hosting temporary and permanent exhibitions and educational activities open to the general public. The museum manages the Horto Botânico (Botanical Garden), adjacent to the Paço de São Cristóvão, as well as an advanced campus in the city of Santa Teresa, in Espírito Santo – the Santa Lúcia Biological Station, jointly managed with the Museum of Biology Prof. Mello Leitão. A third site, located in the city of Saquarema, is used as a support and logistics center for field activities. Finally, the museum is also dedicated to editorial production, outstanding in that field the Archivos do Museu Nacional, the oldest scientific journal of Brazil, continuously published since 1876.The palace, which housed a large part of the collection, was destroyed in a fire on the night of 2 September 2018. The building had been called a "firetrap" by critics, who argued the fire was predictable and could have been prevented. The fire began in the air-conditioning system of the auditorium on the ground floor. One of the three devices did not have external grounding, there was no individual circuit breaker for each of them, and a wire was without insulation in contact with metal. In the wake of the fire, the ruined edifice was being treated as an archaeological site and undergoing reconstruction efforts, with a metallic roof covering a 5,000 m² area including debris.In 2019, more than 30,000 pieces of the imperial family's past were found during archaeological works on Rio de Janeiro Zoological Garden nearby, part of Quinta da Boa Vista. Among the finds are many items such as fragments of crockery, cups, plates, cutlery, horseshoes and even buttons and brooches with imperial coat of arms from military clothing. Those items were given to the museum. After being destroyed by fire, the National Museum has received donations to the amount of R$ 1.1 million in seven months towards rebuilding efforts.