A 600-million-year-old rock
Sugarloaf Mountain is a single block of gneiss and granite more than 600 million years old — formed long before South America split from Africa. About 396 meters high, it rises at the entrance to Guanabara Bay, beside Urca Hill.
Why “Sugarloaf”
In colonial Brazil, sugar was crystallized in cone-shaped clay molds, and the block that came out was called a sugarloaf (pão de açúcar). The mountain’s resemblance to it gave the peak its name.
Where Rio was born
It was at the foot of Sugarloaf, on the strip of land between it and Cara de Cão Hill in Urca, that Estácio de Sá founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, during the fight against the French for control of the bay.
The cable car
The idea of an aerial tramway to the top came from engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos. The first stretch, from Praia Vermelha to Urca Hill, opened on October 27, 1912; the second, up to Sugarloaf, on January 18, 1913. It was Brazil’s first cable car — at the time there were only two others in the world, in Spain and Switzerland.
The first wooden cars came from Germany and carried 22 people. They were replaced in 1972 and again in later decades. In 1979 the cable car was the setting for a James Bond fight in Moonraker.
Climbing walls
The first recorded ascent dates from 1817 and is credited to an Englishwoman, Henrietta Carstairs. Today Sugarloaf has dozens of routes and is one of the best-known urban climbing spots in the world.
Music & bohemian life
Nights at the Cassino da Urca
At the foot of Urca Hill, a building erected in 1922 as the Hotel Balneário became a casino in 1933 and, under Joaquim Rolla, one of Brazil’s most famous nightspots. Its stage hosted Carmen Miranda, Aurora Miranda, Grande Otelo, Dalva de Oliveira, Ary Barroso and even Josephine Baker.
It was there, in 1939, that Broadway producer Lee Shubert saw Carmen Miranda and took her to New York — and from there to Hollywood. When gambling was banned in 1946, the casino closed. The building later housed the TV Tupi studios and is now a school.