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Step into Brazil's 19th-century imperial past in the mountain city of Petrópolis.
A private day trip to Petrópolis, the European-style mountain retreat where Brazil's emperor Dom Pedro II once moved his summer court, visiting the Imperial Museum, Crystal Palace, and Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara.
Leave the crowds of Rio behind for a day in the imperial city of Petrópolis, about 90 minutes from Rio in the mountains. This excursion is perfect for travelers who want to dig deeper into Brazil's history and cultural roots, with your guide providing immersive commentary at each stop.
A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.
Round-trip pickup from your Rio de Janeiro hotel.
Visit the former summer palace of Emperor Dom Pedro II, now a museum of Brazil's imperial era.
See the 19th-century iron-and-glass structure originally built for royal celebrations.
Visit the neo-Gothic cathedral that holds the tombs of Dom Pedro II and his family.
Free time to browse Petrópolis's historic shopping street if time allows.
Back to your hotel, home, or the airport — whenever your day wraps up.
A private day trip to Petrópolis, the European-style mountain retreat where Brazil's emperor Dom Pedro II once moved his summer court, visiting the Imperial Museum, Crystal Palace, and Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara. Leave the crowds of Rio behind for a day in the imperial city of Petrópolis, about 90 minutes from Rio in the mountains. This excursion is perfect for travelers who want to dig deeper into Brazil's history and cultural roots, with your guide providing immersive commentary at each stop.
Petrópolis owes its existence to a single decision: in 1830, Emperor Dom Pedro I bought a farm in these cool, forested mountains after being charmed by the climate during a journey north from Rio. He never built on it himself, but his son, Dom Pedro II, carried the plan forward and founded the city by imperial decree on March 16, 1843. The name — literally "Peter's City" — honors the young emperor. German immigrants were recruited to settle the new town and build its first palace, which is why Petrópolis still carries a visibly European character in its architecture and street layout, unlike almost anywhere else in Brazil.
For the rest of the 19th century, Petrópolis effectively became Brazil's second capital for part of each year. Dom Pedro II reigned for 49 years and spent at least 40 summers here, often for up to five months at a stretch, moving his entire court — ministers, foreign diplomats, and all — up into the mountains to escape Rio's heat. The palace he used, now the Imperial Museum, still holds his original furniture, the imperial crown, and personal effects, offering one of the most intact pictures anywhere of how Brazil's only monarchy actually lived day to day.
The Crystal Palace tells a different, more unexpected story. It wasn't built in Brazil at all — the entire iron-and-glass structure was fabricated in France, shipped across the Atlantic in pieces, and reassembled in Petrópolis, where it was inaugurated on February 2, 1884. It was commissioned by the Count d'Eu — Princess Isabel's husband — originally as a hothouse for the city's horticultural society, and it remains one of the few surviving examples in South America of this very particular, very 19th-century style of prefabricated greenhouse architecture, directly inspired by London's original Crystal Palace.
The Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara took far longer to build than the rest of the imperial city — construction began in 1884 and wasn't finished until 1925, decades after the monarchy itself had fallen. Its neo-Gothic design deliberately echoes the great cathedrals of northern France. Dom Pedro II's own remains took an even longer road home: he died in exile in Paris in 1891, was buried in Lisbon, and only returned to Brazil in 1921 once the government's ban on the imperial family was lifted — finally coming to rest in the cathedral's Imperial Mausoleum, which wasn't completed and inaugurated until 1939.
Every Voyzo tour is a starting point — tell us what you have in mind and we'll build it.
