Located an hour from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis is a city nestled in the mountains of the Serra dos Órgãos, with a population of about 306,000. The city was the summer home of the Brazilian emperor, Dom Pedro II, who founded the city in 1843 after buying a farm in the area. The city developed with the help of a new road connecting Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro, as well as the settlement of Brazilian aristocrats and German immigrants in the area. The city is named after the emperor.

Petrópolis is now a popular summer destination for Brazilian tourists, with a number of tourist attractions including the emperor’s palace, now a museum featuring priceless artifacts from the royal family, the home of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian who invented the world’s first functional airplane, as well as canal-lined streets with numerous mansions of the Brazilian elite.  It’s also the home of the Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, a government-based organization that researches technology. The newer section of the city is home to outlet shopping popular with Cariocas.

A number of historic events took place in Petrópolis, including the inauguration of the first paved highway in Brazil in 1861, the signing of a treaty with Bolivia that gave Brazil control over the state of Acre, the death of famous Brazilian politician and thinker Ruy Barbosa, and the suicide of Austrian novelist Stephen Zweig. Famous visitors to the city include Jorge Amado, Errol Flynn, Greta Garbo, Carmen Miranda, Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, and Orson Welles.

The city has a decidedly European feel, and some consider it the Brazilian version of Versailles.