São Gonçalo () is ãoGonça municipality in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the Southest region. It is located in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, having land limits with the municipalities of Niterói, Maricá and Itaboraí, and a maritime limit, by Guanabara Bay, with the capital, Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 census, it has a population of 896,744 inhabitants, making it the second most populous municipality in the state and the 18th most populous in the country.
History
The current Brazilian territory had been inhabited since at least 10,000 BC by people from other continents. Around the year 1000, the Tapuia people who inhabited the region currently occupied by the municipality were expelled to the interior of the continent due to the arrival of Tupi people from the Amazon.
16th century
In the 16th century, when the first Europeans arrived in the region, it was inhabited by one of these Tupi people: the Tupinambás, who would later be part of the Tamoios Confederation. Archaeological remains indicate that a place especially inhabited by the Tupinambás in the municipality was the island of Itaóca. The coast of Rio de Janeiro, as well as São Gonçalo, was the scene, in the 16th century, of the revolt known as the Confederation of Tamoios, which united the Tupinambás, Tupiniquins, Aimorés and Temiminós tribes and the French explorers against the Portuguese.
The end of the revolt came with the strengthening of Portuguese colonization, with the Portuguese attacking the indigenous villages, killing and enslaving the population. In 1567, with the arrival of reinforcements for the Portuguese captain-general Estácio de Sá, who had founded the village of São Sebastião in Rio de Janeiro two years earlier, the final stage of expulsion of the French and their Tamoio allies began, with the final decimation of the Tupinambás in the region taking place. The Tupinambás withdrew from the region of the current city of Rio de Janeiro, first towards Guanabara Bay and, later, towards Cabo Frio.
On April 6, 1579, the nobleman Gonçalo Gonçalves received from the governor of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, the land located on the banks of the Imboaçu River, with the duty of building a chapel and a village within a period of three years. He built a chapel with the saint of his devotion, São Gonçalo de Amarante.
17th century
The European settlement of São Gonçalo, which began at the end of the 16th century, was led by Jesuit priests, who, at the beginning of the 17th century, established a farm in the area known as Colubandê, near the current RJ-104 highway. This farm still exists today and is a tourist attraction in São Gonçalo.
On October 26, 1644, the parish was created. On February 10, 1647, the parish was confirmed. According to records at the time, the main town occupied an area of 52 km², with approximately 6,000 inhabitants, being transformed into a parish. Aiming to facilitate communication, the headquarters was later transferred to the banks of the Imboaçu River, where a second chapel was built. The set of historical landmarks remaining from the 17th century includes the Nossa Senhora da Boa Esperança Farm in Ipiiba and the property of captain Miguel Frias de Vasconcelos, in Engenho Pequeno, the Chapel of São João in Porto do Gradim and Fazenda da Luz in Itaóca.
In 1660-1661, the farmers of São Gonçalo and Niterói rebelled against the collection of taxes related to the production of cachaça and marched in arms to the city of Rio de Janeiro, where they deposed the governor. This episode became known as the Cachaça Revolt.
19th century
On May 10, 1819, its status as a parish was suspended, becoming a district of the Village of Niterói.
In 1860, thirty sugarcane mills were already exporting sugar through the ports of Guaxindiba, Boaçu, Porto Velho and Pontal. Until the 20th century, São Gonçalo had around twelve ports that exported products from the state of Rio de Janeiro to the court.
On September 22, 1890, the District of São Gonçalo was elevated to town and municipality, through State Decree 124.
In 1892, Decree One, of May 8, suppressed the municipality of São Gonçalo, reincorporating it into Niterói for a brief period of seven months, being restored by Decree 34, of December 7 of the same year.
20th century
In 1922, São Gonçalo was elevated to the category of city, which was revoked in 1923, making the city lower to the category of town.
In 1943, a new territorial division occurred in the state of Rio de Janeiro and, this time, São Gonçalo lost the district of Itaipu to the municipality of Niterói, leaving only five districts, namely: São Gonçalo, Ipiiba, Monjolos, Neves and Sete Pontes.