Where to Stay in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro

What is Niterói known for?

The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum draws the most attention, though the city also keeps historic forts, many beaches and a long line of museums and palaces from its years as the state capital. Museu Antônio Parreiras, Solar do Jambeiro and the Museu Janete Costa de Arte Popular are among them. A ferry links it to Rio de Janeiro across Guanabara Bay in a short crossing.

What are the main landmarks in Niterói?

The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum is the best-known building here, and the city also holds a long roster of palaces, churches and museums carried over from the years of state government. Palácio do Ingá and Palácio da Justiça are two. Solar do Jambeiro, Casa Notre Réve and Palácio dos Correios fill out the list, and Monumento à República marks the civic side.

Churches carry the older layer: Igreja de São Lourenço dos Índios, Igreja de São Domingos de Gusmão, the Basílica de Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Historic forts survive as well.

What is the history of Niterói?

Niterói dates from 1573. Colonial buildings such as Igreja de São Lourenço dos Índios survive from those centuries, when the place was a settlement on the opposite shore of Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro. Then the state moved in.

From 1834 the city served as capital of Rio de Janeiro state, a role it held until 1894 and then took back from 1903 until 1975. A golden mural crown marks that history on the city's arms. Two separate stints as capital left an unusual weight of official architecture for a city of its size.

That ended in 1975. The Museu de História e Artes do Estado do Rio de Janeiro keeps the record of those decades, and the palaces built for the state government stayed behind. Museu de Arte Sacra occupies the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, one of several religious buildings turned over to collections.

Oscar Niemeyer's buildings account for the city's later architectural reputation, with Brasília holding the larger collection. The ferry across Guanabara Bay remains the shortest link to Rio de Janeiro, and the city now sits inside the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area.

Where is Niterói?

Beaches run along the coast. Niterói takes the far shore of Guanabara Bay, facing the city of Rio de Janeiro across the water, and the metropolitan area folds both sides into one. Historic forts stand on that shoreline.

The setting is tropical, south of the equator, and the municipality belongs to Rio de Janeiro state.

What is the climate of Niterói?

Guanabara Bay sits at Niterói's edge, and the tropical band it falls in keeps the year warm and the air heavy with damp off the water. Seasons reverse the northern pattern. January falls in high summer here, and July in the cooler half of the year.

Niterói shares that pattern with Rio de Janeiro across the water.

How do you get to Niterói?

Most arrivals come by water. The ferry from downtown Rio de Janeiro crosses Guanabara Bay in a short run, and it lands travellers within reach of the museums and palaces of the old centre. Roads link it to the rest of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area.

The crossing takes minutes, not hours.