Let’s begin. On this map, from 1713, we can see that Rio was a small urban territory framed by 4 significant hills. These four sites created the boundaries of the city… the “civilized” territory, with everything outside of those boundaries being “rural” … spaces of “wilderness”

• Hill 1 is Castelo, where there was a church and a fortress
• Hill 2 is our Saint Antonio… that we’ve just seen – our point of orientation
• Hill 3 is where the bishop lived. There was also a church and a fortress and
• Hill 4 is São Bento

The first European contact dates to 1502, with the city being founded in 1565. So this
map represents about 200 years of European presence. Now let’s compare that to
today…