A name from the Andes
Before it was Copacabana, the beach was Sacopenapã, a Tupi name linked to the beating wings of herons. Its current name comes from Our Lady of Copacabana, a devotion born on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia, and brought here by traders in the 17th century.
In the 18th century a small chapel to the saint was built on the rocks at the end of the beach — and it ended up naming the beach and, later, the whole neighborhood. The chapel was torn down in the early 20th century to make way for Copacabana Fort.
The tunnel that opened the beach
Until the late 19th century Copacabana was an isolated stretch of sand, home to fishermen and a few farms. Everything changed on July 6, 1892, when the Old Tunnel opened, linking the beach to Botafogo and bringing in the trams. Within a few decades the sandbank had become Brazil’s most famous neighborhood.
The wave promenade
Avenida Atlântica opened in 1906 with the wave pattern in Portuguese stone known as “mar largo” (open sea), inspired by Rossio Square in Lisbon, where it symbolized the Tagus River meeting the ocean.
In the 1970s, when the waterfront was widened, landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx redesigned the promenade: the waves were turned to run parallel to the sea, and the central strip gained large abstract mosaics. Since 1991 the ensemble has been protected as state cultural heritage.
The Copacabana Palace
Planned for the celebrations of the centenary of Brazil’s independence, the hotel was built by Octávio Guinle and designed by the French architect Joseph Gire, inspired by the Negresco in Nice and the Carlton in Cannes. Delays in importing materials pushed the opening back to August 13, 1923.
In 1985, when there was talk of demolition, the building was listed as heritage at the federal, state and city levels. It is still the city’s most traditional hotel.
The Fort and the Eighteen
Where the old chapel stood, the Army built Copacabana Fort between 1908 and 1914, with armored domes and Krupp guns. In July 1922 the fort was the stage for the Revolt of the 18 of the Fort, whose rebels marched along the sand — the start of the tenentista movement of young officers.
Since 1987 the fort has housed the Army History Museum, with one of the loveliest views of the waterfront.
Music & bohemian life
The “little princess of the sea”
In 1946, Dick Farney recorded the samba-canção “Copacabana”, by Braguinha and Alberto Ribeiro, which called the neighborhood the princesinha do mar — the little princess of the sea — a nickname it has kept ever since. In 1951, Lúcio Alves released “Sábado em Copacabana” (Saturday in Copacabana), by Dorival Caymmi and Carlos Guinle, a portrait of the neighborhood’s nights.
In the late 1950s, much of bossa nova was born here. Young musicians such as Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Ronaldo Bôscoli and Sérgio Mendes met at Nara Leão’s apartment on Avenida Atlântica. In the Beco das Garrafas (Bottle Alley) on Rua Duvivier, tiny clubs like Bottle’s and the Little Club saw Elis Regina, Wilson Simonal, Jorge Ben and Baden Powell at the start of their careers. Legend has it the name comes from the bottles neighbors threw from their windows to complain about the noise.
The name also traveled the world: New York’s famous Copacabana nightclub, opened in 1940, was named after the beach and inspired Barry Manilow’s hit “Copacabana (At the Copa)” (1978). Today the sand hosts New Year’s Eve parties for millions and huge free concerts, such as the Rolling Stones (2006), Madonna (2024) and Lady Gaga (2025).