Ilha Grande is located on the south coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the same region known as Costa Verde and in the municipality of Angra dos Reis, named after the day of São Paulo in 1502 (Day of the Three Kings), by the Portuguese navigator Gonçalo Bunny. The word “Creek” can also mean “Fire Goddess” in mythology, an image that evokes beauty and is also power and devastation.
It is the largest island in Brazil with 193 km² of rugged and mountainous relief, whose highest point is 1031 m. It is the peak of Pedra D’água, from where all the fresh water of the Island comes out and for this reason this point has not been necessary, so that the water that supplies residents and tourists who visit Ilha Grande is conserved. The second highest point is the Pico do Papagaio with 982 m. Famous for its picturesque shape, it attracts tourists from all over the world for a night walk, synchronized with sunrise at the summit of the Peak.
This beautiful island is furrowed by several coves, with a total of 106 beaches, a lush vegetation formed by Mata Atlântica, Mangue and Restinga is today known as a tropical paradise, but it was not always like that.
8 years ago, Ilha Grande has been so inhabited by the Sambaquis (ancient civilization), whose name comes from Tupi Guaraní, Tamba – Concha and Ki – Amontoado. Bulk brands can be used for different types of dishes, moreover they can be observed all over the Island. But when it comes to an ancient civilization, you also have to be exiled fishermen, explorers and deep-sea divers, it is unknown who it came from, perhaps some very ancient marine culture. They inhabited the coast of Rio de Janeiro for approximately 5,000 years and at some point they began to have contact with the Tupi peoples. It is believed that what arose was an acculturation, that is, the Sambaquis costumes clung to the Tupi to the point that, with the arrival of the Portuguese, they were no longer apt to tell a story of this ancient civilization called Sambaqui.
When the navigator Gonçalo Coelho arrived on the island as early as 1502, he found the town called Isla Tamoios, which he named Ilha de Ippaun Wasu (Ilha Grande in Tupi-Guarani).
Throughout the 16th century, the fighting in the region, where the Portuguese allied with the Tupiniquinos and the French with the Tamoios. In 1559 the Portuguese crown decided Dom Fonseca to administer an Island, in 1567.
Already in 1726, from a piracy and smuggling attack on the royal captaincy of Rio de Janeiro. During this period, the Big Island began to develop as a crop of sugar cane and coffee, which lasted until the last decade of the 19th century and with an intensification of colonization, blacks were brought to work in the fields making the place one of the main routes of the slave trade.
In 1803, the island became a parish, with the name of Santana da Ilha Grande from outside, having seen the legal relationship with Angra dos Reis. In 1863, Emperor Dom Pedro II made his first visit to Ilha Grande, where a space farm was located, where the “Lazaretto” would be built, an institution that could serve as a classification and quarantine center for the transport of patients arriving in Brazil. and more humble for people with leprosy. From 1886 to 1903 it served more than 4,000 boats, it served as a historical representative during the first years of the republic, when an agricultural correctional colony of two rivers was created. In 1930 all the inmates of the Lazareto were transferred to a colony in Dos Ríos, having passed the Cândido Mendes Penal Institute with capacity for up to 10,000 inmates.
In this prison the book Portuguese Literature wrote the book “Memories of a Prison”, when he was imprisoned during a military dictatorship of the new state (1937-1945).
Until the 1970s, the institute won over common leaders and prisoners, having originated in today’s criminal phase as a red, a fact that inspired a national film called 400 against 1.
In 1994 the prison was demolished and in 1998 a UERJ environmental studies center was installed on the site.
Devil’s Cauldron Island time is an island in today’s tourism history.
This is a story of our own search for Ilha Grande, we hope and synthesize the opportunity to enjoy, comment and share.
A big hug to everyone!
Excursions Acqua Roots Ilha Grande
http://www.ilhagrandeadventure.org